Bind Wounds in classic EQ.

[Vohl]

I'm looking for some help to verify this. The old Dojo web site once had a guide to binding wounds -- one I wrote back in 2000. Binding wounds and hit point gear do not work as they did in classic. To prove this, I need the URL to the original Dojo. With this, I could use the wayback machine to find the article.

Anyway, here is the way Bind Wounds worked pre-Kunark when I was soloing aviaks in SK:

1) The "more than 50% cap" was very literal. If you ticked up to exactly half HPs while binding wounds, congratulations! You got the full amount back. On p1999, you lose if you tick up to exactly 50%.

2) HP gear added to both current HP and to your cap. Removing those items likewise reduced both HPs and your cap. If you had less than 55 HP and removed a platinum fire wedding ring, congratulations, you were down and bleeding, if not dead. At the same time, taking a ring off when you were at 555/1065 HPs would reduce you to 500/1010 HP -- enough breathing space for another bandage. On p1999, HP gear works pretty much just like +Sta gear, below.

3) +Sta gear increased your HP cap, but not your current HPs. Clasping on a golden opal choker for an extra +9 stamina could also gain you more bind wounds space. Removing the item only affected maximum HPs. On p1999, this works the same way; it is provided to contrast with +HP items.

These are small tweaks that don't have much impact on gameplay. I provide this mainly because I see much drive for authenticity with this project.

[aresprophet]

I definitely remember being able to take off HP gear in order to bind up further, then putting it back on for an increase in HP.

[Velerin]

Necro bump but I have been searching and can't find any other reference to this. I definitely remember taking off hp gear, binding to 50%, then adding hp gear back to get above 50%. Also if you remove hp gear at low health you could kill yourself (gimpy pvp tactic on Rallos to not die to pvp).
Can any of our better classic searchers find proof for this? I know currently adding hp gear only changes max hp and doesn't allow this method.

[Daldaen]

https://web.archive.org/web/19991013051006/http://kadanit.com/eqmonks/skills.htm

Bind wound - As most everyone know, this skill allows you to bandage yourself (if you have bandages) and heal yourself up to 50% of your health. Each bandage takes about 10 seconds to use and with a high Bind wound skill it will heal about 20 hp. At low levels, you wont be able to afford enough bandages to make good use of this skill (a bandage costs about 6 silver). But at high levels bind wound is a nice hobby for Monks, though it wont add much to your character... just slightly reduce downtime. It can however save your life if you are seriously poisoned and losing hp while sitting. In that case it's good to have a few bandages and a high bind wound skill.

Not seeing reference to removal of HP gear on the monk site, though it may be there would require more digging.

https://web.archive.org/web/20010717220724/http://pub18.ezboard.com/fmmrpgdiscussionguidestactics.showMessage?topicID= 42.topic

Another post on skills.

[Daldaen]

While reading through that site I found this:

Mend - One of the more useful skills Monks get. If successful, this skill will heal 25% of your maximum health at the moment. It recycles every 6 minutes. At low levels this skill will fail often and sometimes even worsen your wounds! So it's best not to use it during battle unless you're going to die anyway. When your skill reaches 100 (at level 20), it will never fail again.

Can't you fail at max mend on this server? Or am I wrong on that.

[Velerin]

potatoe003
Monk
Posts: 13
(1/30/01 1:07:40 pm)
Reply | Edit | Del All The Bind Wounds Wrapup.
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If you are wearing any HP items remove them before you bind your wounds. You can then bond to 50%. When you put your HP items back on you will be above 50%. Just be sure that you have enough HP on your character not to die when you remove your HP items, you will die if the HP items were keeping you alive. I usually only remove my items after I bind to 2 bubs.

http://monklybusiness43508.yuku.com/reply/13841/Skill-tips-Bind-Wound#.U_yisk10zIU

So far what I've found, though this is 2001.

[Ele]

Not seeing reference to removal of HP gear on the monk site, though it may be there would require more digging.


Monkly Business has a few guides on Bind Wound and removing HP gear to up the total amount of HP you can restore.

Velious Era thread:
http://www.monkly-business.net/forums/showthread.php?t=8732

ips:

a) Max out that bind wounds skill!! Sometime around level 20-25, I was making enough money by mugging mobs to support a bandage habit easily, but even before then I'd approached maximum skill. This is going to be harder for grouping monks, but don't neglect it -- never know when your local healer will decide to go out to an anniversary dinner with his or her spouse rather than play EQ. (Yeah, I know -- how

likely is that?! )



b) Mend does not break feign death.



c) Bind wounds DOES!!! (Even though the graphic looks like you're still feigned -- aggro mobs notice these details!)



d) Bind wounds does not break sneak -- often I run behind a static mob to fight. If I get too low, I feign and when mob returns to home spot (turns around) I hit sneak and start binding. Sometimes it's a race to see who regains hps faster -- me by binding or the mob by regen.



e) Keep track of your 50% hp number so that you don't waste bandages.



f) You can bind successfully from anything <50% hp. This allows you to bandage up to over 50%. Example: I have 1000 max hp and finish slapping on a bandage at 499hp with bind skill of 180. I get 45 hp, taking me to 544hp -- 54.4% hp.



g) How many hp per bandage? No, it's not really (bind skill)/4 rounded down. While you bandage you regenerate hps, so the number is a bit higher. As a human monk, I use a rule of thumb: hp/bandage = bind/4 + 2. So at skill 200, I get about 52 hp per bandage. (50 for the bind, 2 for the regen in the time it takes to apply the band-aid.) Iksars will have a higher result due to their better regen rate. Regen rates are also higher (I hear) beyond level 50.



h) Up to level 40, a monk with no HP gear or buffs and maxed skill in bind will take about 9 bandages to go from 0% to 50% hp. Each level (up to level 40) gives 5 skill gains = 1.25 hp per bandage and 23 or so hps. Half health increases roughly 11.5 hp per level, so the increase of 1.25 hp per bandage will cover this in 9 bandages. Now unless you're a Kamikaze Monk (TM), you probably feign or stop fighting at about

10-20% hp. So you will have about 30-40% hp to bind using this style. This is about 5-7 bandages. A pretty good way to figure out how many bandages to pack on those wonderful outings to LOIO.



i) None of this is accurate for bind skill > 200. This allows you to bind many more hps per band-aid and bind + mend to > 95%.





3. "Tough mob" bind + mend style



Description: When I'm fighting a borderline monster, where I'd rather have full hps, but am too antsy to wait it out, I use a trick to max out my available hps. I can get up to 84-89% hp every time instead of 75-80%. That extra 100+ hps is very useful against heavy hitters!



How to do it:

a) Starting from below 50%, remove your +HP gear.

b) Doing this will cause you to drop those extra hps. Because of this, make sure you're in a safe location and DON'T TAKE OFF ANYTHING THAT WILL CAUSE YOUR HPS TO GO BELOW 0 -- YOU WILL DIE! Sorry about the shouting -- but you really didn't want to die that way...

b1) If you're too low to remove all your +HP gear, bind up until you can and then remove the gear.

c) Bind up to over 50% of your new maximum hps.

d) Put on your +HP gear.

e) Mash the Mend button.

f) Voila! You're should be significantly over 75% (depending on how much +HP gear you have).



How it works: This isn't rocket science, just a bit of elementary algebra. (Your brain starts to melt!)

baseline hps (without +HP gear) = b

extra hps (from +HP gear) = y

current hps = h

max hps = b + y

bind + mend = 75% of max hps = 0.75(b + y) <== using style #2, "normal" bind +

mend



Step a) Your max hps goes from (b + y) => b

c) Your hps (h) go to 50% of max: h = 0.5b

d) You add +HP gear: h = 0.5b + y

e) Mend and get +25% hps: h => h + 0.25(b + y) = 0.75b + 1.25y

Notice that this is 0.5y more than "normal" method!

Example: I have 927 base hp with 215hp from my equipment. (Total max hp = 1142.) Using "normal" bind + wound I can get to 75% max hp = 855hp. Using "tough mob" bind + wound I can get to 0.75*927 + 1.25*215 = 963hp = 108 extra hps.



Note that this method uses more bandages!


These threads are post Velious, but should still be relevant.

http://www.monkly-business.net/forums/showthread.php?t=8729
Providing you have some nice HP items (velium fire opal rings work very well) there is a simple way to add to how much you can bind wound yourself. As you aproach 50% life, remove all your HP items (or just the significant ones) and continue to bind wound, then put the items back on. This works due to HP items beinging counted as always being full, as in you take off 65 hp ring, you loose exactly 65 hp in addition to the 65 hp max, allowing you to bind wound 32.5 more hp.

2010 thread talking about the strategy from back in the day
http://www.monkly-business.net/forums/showthread.php?t=34684