Sounds very useful, but what is a mannequin and where do you get them? There is no Wiki entry for mannequin, is that slang for some in game mob?

No. It’s the stand where you can place your armor. They’ve been added a while back and the ability to quick swap was a recent addition. You just build them. :blush:

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Wow. I’m amazed at the responses regarding thralls. It sounds like they are more optional than I realized. We never like using pets in games because it’s a hassle micromanaging them, but we heard they were a must in this game and, fortunately they are relatively low maintenance, except that they seem to bug out a lot. I had an Accursed fighter that always crawled to his enemies and never attacked. I tried EVERYTHING to make that sucker work, but finally got rid of him and my very next guy was much more responsive, and felt great. But they surely do die a lot. I’d LOVE to play without them and this thread seems to encourage that.

Gonna try some new build ideas and maybe just park our guys for a while, see how that feels. Thanks guys, great tips here.

Ahh, gonna look for that item. Thanks!

It’s great when you can solo all content BUT thralls are still very useful. You just need to accept that you might lose them on occasio. If you are still learning the game, take a thrall just in case.

DON’T FORGET TO PLACE A BEDROLL near where you’ll fight. If you want to play safe, place a cheap wooden box near it with potions and at least a spare weapon. A torch is also a good idea, in case night falls.
When you become more experienced, a bedroll will sufice.
You can outrun almost anything in this game. Some felines can catch you, but even that is rare. So you can make a run for it. But, until you are experienced, play safe. If you die, your thrall will enter scouting mode. When you enter its rendering area, enemies will attack it and if you don’t get to it fast, it might be killed. So, you’ll be left naked with no thrall. Ponder if it is a situation you don’t mind facing. Sometimes, if we went over our head and learned enough sorcery, the best thing is trying to save the thrall via comand from the followers table (no sorcery needed; it will lose its gear) and summon our corpse, recovering our gear. Rethink the strategy and go back at it when ready.
Whatever you decide, good luck!
Your are living your best days in the game. Once you know it very well, the thrill won’t be the same. Enjoy!

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At one point thralls were mandatory. But that changed with the first Age of Sorcery and a complete redo of attributes, thralls, and monsters/NPCs. A much needed reset, IMHO.

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Yes, sneaky little thieves don’t like good thralls. They make their life harder. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes::smile:

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Yeah, we’ve learned the bedroll lesson many times. I now carry a stock of them as standard load-out.

It hurts to lose a thrall I’ve invested time into. But my Accursed Berserker has been godly so far. We’ve died in vaults and come back, recovered our bodies and seen them fighting as we got into rendering distance, suited up, joined the fight, only to find everything dead and our thralls still standing.

That said, I do prefer the independence of running around without wondering if this guy is still behind me …

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Didn’t know what an “M Black Blade” was and there was no entry in the Wiki, until I dropped the M and found Musashi’s, which I assume is what you were describing. Legendary and not repairable, but looks damned nice. What do you think are some of the best craftable agility weapons? I’ve got Grandmaster workstations now and scouting around for a Shieldwright for my Armor, what thrall do I want for my weapon crafting?

Agility? Few ones worth their weight

Daggers of daggon. Learned in the sunken city dungeon. (To the right of the main boss)

Epic grade short swords

Epic katanas are nice but the damage just isn’t there.

Whirlwind blades are fun and decent damage but you would definitely need more grit for them to shine.

The black blade is my go-to because it’s like 95%spawn rate at the siege castle of exiled lands.

but aren’t you on Siptah? That changes everything. Voidforge gladius and the voidforge katana. Most folks will tell you feroxic daggers but I agree with wak that the daggers of outer darkess are ideal. Especially in you agility/authority build since your daggers will bleed and sunder the enemy while you thrall will wallop with the mace with near full armor penetration thanks to you daggers.

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Unfortunately these were battle pass only from age of sorcery chapter 3 battle pass. They cannot get them if they recently started playing.
I think there is a stygian one but it is apparently bazaar only so they’d have to wait for rotation to come around.

That really, really sucks! I didn’t even think of it, @Eniguman .
You’re right.

Honestly, I’ve been on my home server for 3 years now and I want for nothing.
(Also PvE)
Kind of like as Kiki said it’s situational.

I’m running 20 Strength, 20 Vitality, 20 Grit. I have almost 800 health and I’ve gotten myself in the habit of no thralls at all. If I’m not running purges I can solo the city or be a sh*thead at my friends bases. Not gonna lie, it’s absolutely refreshing. It’s like getting a break from toddlers.

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I have tried both in the past and stuck with commanding presence , the reasons are many but the main one is the same as Xevyr states - in combat every HP counts .
Moreover, how often do you fight “intensively” ? Purges ? ( and there Healty diet does not help at all) Otherwise I have at least one zerker in my team (I use war party) and in combination with epic armor, regular mob almost does not hurt them unless I go to volcano or mounds of dead .
So some “healing between fights” is irrelevant for me 99,99% of the time. In contrast, with Predatory blade I’m getting 215-250 with LA according to ingame info (depending on what armor and food I choose) and that’s 10-12 HP/hit … not much but better than nothing

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The discussion here focuses on the abstract.

@ Wanderlust:
What is the problem you’re trying to solve?

  • Do your thralls go into combat with full health, but die at the last percetages of a boss’ health? Than go commanding presence, it might be enough to solve that.
  • Do your thralls survive combat, but are at low health afterwards, and you want to reduce downtime? Healthy diet might be better so solve that problem.

Personally, I tend to experience the latter much more often, and thus prefer Healthy Diet.

As you play as a duo, I assume that you should win boss battle that are roughly in your “weight class” easily, but may have downtime afterwards, so I’d suggest Healthy Diet. Buuuut it depends on your experience.

That you’re asking abouth these perks makes me wonder: Is the choice between these perks the most helpful thing? The Cimmerian Bersker you mentioned should steamroll most bosses on his own without any player help and without any perks. If he doesn’t… there’s something else going on.
Should there be done something about how your thralls are equipped (e. g. Sobek Armor, Cimmerian Armor or crafted heavy stuff)? Do they have good food (e. g. gruel or roasted steak)? Do they use weapons the thrall AI can work with (e. g. maces, two-handed swords)?

All of these things are vastly more important than the perks discussed here.

Your own equipment and combat style factors in, too. Commanding Presence requires you to attack, which can be very dangerous with many bosses - unless one can and does use ranged weapons to activate the perk.
As an agility build, I assume you’re low on health and armor. That might make Commanding Presence better on paper, but difficult to use in practice.

If, on the other hand, you don’t rush from combat to combat and use health potions, bandages and so on to heal thralls, Healthy Diet’s effect might be relatively small.

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Honestly, we’re not really suffereing from anything right now, just trying to learn enough about this new gameworld to be able to make our own judgments about what’s most effective. This thread has been very helpful in that regard, as a key part of our game education, particularly since the web is so full of contradictory and dated info.

Many thanks for your insightful comments, I read them with pleasure and interest.

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