Board Thread:Roleplay Ideas/@comment-26863727-20160402184956/@comment-26863727-20160403204918

Maltalidenta Kwuitidherali wrote:

Aramirtheranger wrote: Heart, it takes all of 7 years of constant practice to become a master at a style. At that point the only way you can further improve yourself is with better gear and better strategy.

Training, Gear, Tactics. This is what makes a warrior out of a noob with a sword. Species and age are irrelevant. People act like having centuries of combat experience gives you a huge edge, in fact it doesn't really. Combat is unpredictable. Having faced lots of other fighters and generals will not inform you of exactly what this particular individual will do.

And thousands of years of killing spam tactic troops like Orcs isn't really impressive, when you think about it. But yet, when you give them all the same gear - training and tactics become a major part. Combat is predictable, to an extent. For instance, if they move to parry you know that they are a lot less likely to parry again. Seven years won't teach you a lot of things, especially what it actually feels like to fight. It will inform you of what people will do in general, and the best way is to simply probe for weaknesses at the start. But seven years doesn't teach you that. Seven years teaches you how to attack, not to see. And killing masses of anything will give you a lot of insight into efficiency - honing skills takes much more than seven years. You'll be a lot better and much more practised in practically anything you do. Seven years, on the other hand, teaches you everything it can. It's neither everything nor a scratch on the surface of the possibilities. Millennia of millennia, on the other hand, gives you time to create your own motions, master them, create more. Seven years trains you to be predictable. It is whatever happens afterwards that changes it. Guess that means you think knights and samurai both sucked ass...

I don't think you understand why the existing styles were used for centuries until different weapon designs came along. They fought that way because people who didn't with that gear they were using died- which is how they figured out what worked. I defy you to effectively use a longsword like a katana, or vice versa.