Tzarakk (Slaves of the Beastmaster) Guide

Guild Location:

Joining Location:

Continent: Furnachia
World Location: Temple of Chaos.

After you get off the Ferry in Furnachia, go through the city of Rilynt'tar and then follow the road east/southeast/south until it ends and a path starts. The temple is just a bit east and south of that.
The training location is in the far north-east of the temple

Warning: There are a number of very strong and dangerous aggressive monsters in the temple, so be careful if you decide to wander around and make sure you spend all your EXP first.

As a side note: There is a chained aggressive centaur to the NE of the temple but not all the way to the walls (a bit west from the far NE side). Avoid that.

Note: This is where you join the guild. All further interactions (training, advancing, reputation gain, etc) will be done at the Tzarakk Temple in Lucetium.

Training Location:

Continent: Lucetium
World Location: Temple of Tzarakk.

After you get off the Ferry in Luceitum go south until you hit the city of Lorenchia
Go to the west and south, roughly following the path
The LoC Tzarakk guild shows up as a '#' between two small mountains.
Go west when on the '#' to enter it
The training location is in the middle of the temple.

Guild Requirements:

Evil Religious
Maximum levels (10) in Disciples of Chaos

Disclaimer:

I have not maxed out the guild yet, and my mount is only at the "muscular unicorn" stage. So I'm writing what I learn as I learn it. If you have any suggestions/questions/corrections please let me know so I can improve the quality of this guide.

My Overview of the Guild:

The Slaves of the Beastmaster (referred to at Tzarakk, or just Tzar) are a melee focused guild centered around a monstrous beast you can summon and ride. They are basically the Evil Religious version of Cavaliers. Their mount is a gift from the guild which means you don't need to buy/capture it and it increases in power as you feed it more corpses. Tzarakks are considered a very good Newbie/Midbie guild as you can get healing from other guilds in your background, and your mount will tank damage for you. Also the mount will help you save endurance points while traveling, and you can get saddle bags to increase your carrying capability. This guild excels for players in the 30 - 60 level range where more traditional tanks such as Rangers really struggle. It is strongly recommended that you also take a few levels in the Triad guild to get some additional healing. Finally, Tzarakk is considered primarily a defensive guild. After you advance past this most players join Reavers for more offensive focused powers.

Pros:

Awesome guild for Newbies/Midbies

Your mount provides a ton of utility. It can tank, makes overland travel easy, and can carry loot for you.

Basically you get many of the benefits of a Rift Entity that the Magical Riftwalker guild provides, but you also are a semi-tank yourself.

It doesn't require a ton of experience to be useful.
You will have some healing from your background
You can transform into a Chaos spawn for additional stats and attacks (thanks to your levels in the Discipline guild)

This is considered one of the best guilds for ranking up player levels 30 - 60

Levels 30 - 60 are the grindy part of Batmud, so having a guild that can tank, take a hit, do damage, and has some healing available is huge
Thanks to your mount, this guild is not as dependent on having top tier equipment as some other guilds.

Cons:

No healing in the guild itself

You will need to multi-class and spend a few levels in the Triad guild for healing spells

While Tzarakk is considered a tanking (as in able to take damage) guild, they struggle with end game content as their mount doesn't have a lot of elemental protection

Hence why they tend to fall into the sweet-spot for levels 30-60 but are less popular for high level builds.

You need to feed your mount the souls of dead corpses

This causes problems if there are other players in your party that also want to make use of corpses

Your mount can be difficult to manage compared to Rift Walker entities

I never thought I'd say rift walker entity management was easy, but compared to the Tzarakk mount they are a walk in the park
If you get knocked off your mount it will stop following you
There is no easy way to see how healthy it is without looking at it
It doesn't have any regeneration on its own. You need to heal it and/or feed it souls of corpses

Polearms (the weapon of choice for Tzarakks) are rare, hard to wield, and expensive

Expect a "starting" polearm to cost you around 100k if you buy it from a player.

The attack skills are inconsistent until you get to levels 15+ in the guild

If you need to hit something, "Kick" will remain your most dependable skill. All the other attack skills have a high chance to miss.
I've been very disappointed by the damage output of my Tzarakk so far. "Charge" can be nice but it misses a lot and has a huge EP cost. I'd like to use "Trample" more, but it also misses so "Kick" is a more consistent damage dealer.

Tzarakk is a Chaos guild, and you can only join one Chaos guild

Joining Tzarakk means you can't join Kharim, Aelena, and Nergel guilds.
Kharim and Aelena aren't real good dual-class matches for Tzarakk so that probably isn't a problem, but Nergel is a tough one to give up due to the minions their followers can control.

Tzarakk Quick Start Guide:

Join the guild.

This is actually a two step process. First join Tzarakk in the Temple of Chaos in Furnachia.
Next go to the guild headquarters in Lucetium to actually advance levels and train

Name your steed.

You need to do this before you summon it
To do this use the command "tzarakk name NAME"

Summon your steed using the "Steed of tzarakk" spell

Initially your steed is going to be an anorexic donkey/camel.
Don't worry, it'll get more impressive over time.

Ride your mount using the command "ride NAME" where NAME is the name of your steed

You can also dismount your steed using the command "dismount NAME"
If you dismount you steed, it will stop following you. You will either need ride it again or lead it for it to come with you.

Create a trigger in your client to highlight when you get knocked off your mount

The text you are looking for is: "You are knocked off your mount!"
When you get knocked off your mount, not only will your mount stop helping you, but it also will stop following you.
If you are traveling and suddenly don't see your mount anywhere, this is probably what happened

Create another triggers for what to do with your corpse (rip_action can sometimes not give you enough control over corpse handling)

For disposing corpses and making your mount gain reputation: tzarakk chaosfeed corpse

The first time you use this it gives the soul of the corpse to your mount
The second time you use it, you mount eats the corpse

For healing your mount: use harvest soul at corpse

This also gives the soul to your mount, but it heals your mount vs. giving it reputation.

Ralmaz's Rip Action Builder site is super helpful for setting up your rip_action command.

Link: Ralmaz's Rip Action Builder

To advance your level

Kill a monster and bring it back to the training location.
"pray to tzarakk" to gain the notice of the gods

If you don't do this, you won't be able to sacrifice anything.

"sacrifice corpse"

Note: You may need to sacrifice multiple corpses as you get higher level
You need to sacrifice more corpses if you get the message: "You have not proven your worth to Tzarakk and are not allowed that much power"

For the first five levels: Focus on using kick and clawed strike as your primary attack
Gain experience and work on getting your mount bulked up with more reputation.
When you get a chance, start focusing on collecting trophies to increase your skillmax for certain core Tzarakk skills/spells.
After around 10 levels in the guild, consider putting 3 or 5 levels into the Triad guild to get better healing and harm spells.
Once you get Rampage trained to around 50% start making it your primary attack skill unless you are transformed as a Chaos Spawn, in which case clawed strike does more damage.
Keep on riding and killing things.

Guild Help

(Highly Recommended): Guide for the Disciples of Chaos Guild: Link
Tzarakk Skill/Spell List: Link
Batwiki entry on Tzarakk: Link

Polearm Weapons

Polearms are heavy and slow weapons. They do a lot of damage though, and several of the Tzarakk skills require their use

General tips:

The stronger and bigger you are, the better you will be able to wield polearms
Also, riding a mount *significantly* increases your ability to wield larger weapons one-handed
You can check out how well you can wield a polearm (due to its size) by using the command "heft POLEARM" where POLEARM is the name of the weapon you are evaluating.
If you are too weak to wield a polearm one-handed you will wield it in both hands
You can force one-handing a polearm by using the command "wield POLEARM in right".

You will be less accurate if you do this
Also, the weapon will occasionally become unbalanced and you will be forced to unwield it. Which is not great if this happens in the middle of a fight.

Here are some recommended polearms to buy from players

A nasty guard's bronze pike

Normally sells for 5k
Newbie's first polearm. If you need a weapon this is the cheapest option.
Pikes are super heavy, so you'll likely need to use both hands to wield this.
Pikes also have the slowest attack speed, but hit very hard. So your damage will be very spikey.
You'll want to upgrade fairly early from this weapon to something lighter.

Ruby Long Spear: Link

Lightweight. Favorite of barsoomian Tzarakks.
No special abilities. Ok(ish) damage

Frosty three bladed halberd: Link

Also known as Xormor
Sells for around 100k
Very heavy
+4 Con, +cold damage & -hpr

An odd looking futuristic polearm: Link

Sells for around 250k
Very heavy
Does a ton of damage
Special shooting action
+8 impale

A hefty halberd known as 'Deocide': Link

Sells for around 500k - 1mil
Medium weight! This is the main reason to get it
Does a ton of damage
+Hit & +Acid damage

A deep green trident with barbed blades: Link

Does a ton of damage
+6 con, +4% parry, +poison damage

Riding Tips:

Rescuing your mount:

Problem: Occasionally you will get knocked off your mount by a much tougher creature and you need to flee, leaving your mount behind

Option 1: You can cast "Steed of Tzarakk" and your steed will be summoned to you
Option 2: You can run into the room, type "lead MOUNT_NAME", and then leave. Your mount will follow you.

Your mount is too tired to move:

Problem: If your mount gets hungry it will become too tired to move, and takes forever to go anywhere. This often happens if you idle for a long time

Option 1: Dismount your steed (dismount). Next either leave it behind or "lead NAME" to have it follow you, and go find something to kill. If you left your mount behind, summon it to bring it to you. Kill the creature and then have you mount feed on it twice (once for soul, the second time for food)
Option 2: Cast "Banish Mount" to banish your mount and then resummon it. It'll return to you fully fed. I think there is a cooldown on doing this, but the cooldown is shorter than the time it takes for your mount to get hungry again.

You want your mount to carry items:

Problem: Your mount can not carry items without a saddlebag. But your saddlebag won't fit your mount.

Step 1: Wait until your mount is at least a horse. You need to resize your saddlebag each time your mount grows, so it will likely cost too much as you are advancing past the Feeble Camel stage.
Step 2: Buy a mount saddlebag from Esiris, or ask a Beastmaster or Merchant for one. It will likely cost you around 15k.
Step 3: Find a merchant or beastmaster to resize the saddlebag for your mount
Step 4: Give you mount the saddlebag.

If your mount drops the saddlebag, it is the wrong size for them

Step 5: You can now store items in the saddlebag and your mount will carry it
Step 6: (IMPORTANT) Make sure you take off the saddlebag before you log our or reboot happens. If you don't the saddlebag and everything in it will be destroyed on boot.

Problem: How do you use saddlebags?

Give your mount the saddlebag

If your mount drops the bag, they need the bag resized for them. See above.

Give items you want your mount to carry.

Aka "Give ITEM to MOUNT"

You can see what items your mount is carrying by looking at them.
To get items back from your mount, use the command "take ITEM from MOUNT"

You accidently attacked your mount and now it is aggressive:

Problem: You are fighting with your mount and you don't want to.

Note: You can attack your mount, and unsurprisingly it doesn't like this. Note, there is an advanced Tzarakk skill that requires you to kill your mount so there may be cases where you do want to fight it.
Option 1: Leave the room and then cast "Steed of Tzarakk" to summon your mount. This will cause it to lose it's aggressiveness and take it out of combat
Option 2: Kill your mount, and then resummon it....

Mount Advancement/Size

Note: The race of your mount might vary from what is below. The important thing is the prefix [Anorexic, Feeble, Shaky, Solid] for power rankings. That being said, the mount type will determine the saddlebags you can put on your mount.

Anorexic Donkey
Feeble Pony
Feeble Camel
Shaky Camel
Shaky Zebra
Solid Zebra
Solid Horse
Solid Unicorn
Muscular Unicorn

Trophy Reputation Rewards:

Notes:

I believe these can only be farmed from creatures in the outerworld.
To turn them in: Go to the South East portion of the Lucetium guild (it is unmarked unfortunately), and go "down" to the trophy hall
You can buy a trophy room of your own for 25000 gold. You need to have this in cash. Tzarakk doesn't take money orders from your bank...
Once you do this you can visit your hall from this room by using the command "walk NAME" where NAME is the name of your character
In your hall you can "hang TROPHY" where TROPHY is the name of your trophy to turn it in.

You can then "look at wall" to see the trophies you have turned in as well as their bonuses

You can harvest/collect trophies multiple times but you can only turn them in once. So it helps to keep track of which ones you have done already.

I'll admit, that's part of the reason why I'm updating this list below as I earn more trophies.

Rewards:

EASY/Medium Difficulty:

Alligator:

alligator skin

train/study negate offhand penalty: +5%
Validated: a full-grown alligator

Medium: 15k monster

Bird (Various)

bird feathers

train/study find weakness: +5%
Validated: a majestic golden eagle

Hard: Not recommended. 17k monster
Found: Rugged Highlands (H)

Bull:

bull horns

train/study alertness: +7%
Validated: a full-grown and a very bull-headed bull

Easy: 11k monster
Found: Forest (f)

Giraffe:

hide of a giraffe

train/study alertness: +5%
Validated: An adult giraffe

Easy: 16k monster
Found: Plains ( . )

Hyena

hyena's head

train/study impale: +5%

Monkey (also counts apes):

monkey skull

train/study stun: +6%

Racoon:

raccoon fur

train/study bestial frenzy: +10%
Validated: A young, curious raccoon

Easy: 1k monster
Found: Forest (f)

Reindeer:

reindeer horns

train/study hunting: +10%

Scorpion (be careful about getting poisoned!):

stinger of scorpion

train/study alertness: +8%

Skunk:

tail of a skunk

train/study negate offhand penalty: +3%
Validated: A big striped skunk

Easy: 5k
Found: Forest (f)

Sloth:

head of the sloth

train/study camping: +5%
Validated: A sloth hangs here lazily

Easy: 6k
Found: Jungle (j)

Snake (Various):

*Recommend picking a non-venomous snake
snake scales

train/study shield bash: +10%
Validated: a light-gray milk snake

Easy 11k
Found: Swamp (s)

Tortoise:

tortoise shell

train/study bestial frenzy: +10%

Zebra:

hide of a zebra

train/study alertness: +4%
Validated: Oddly-striped zebra

Wolf (Various):

wolf hide

train/study discipline: +3%
Validated: Juvenile wolf

Hard Difficulty:

Bear:

bear skin

train/study mangle: +10%

bear tooth

train/study bestial frenzy: +10%

Buffalo:

buffalo hide

train/study impale: +5%

Elephant:

tusk of the elephant

train/study combat riding: +5%

Leapord:

leopard hide

train/study mangle: +10%

Lion:

mane of the lion

train/study riposte: +10%
Validated: A young but already frightful lion

Medium: 17k monster
Found: Plains ( . )

Moose:

moose horns

train/study alertness: +6%

Mud Monster:

hardened mud

train/study stunned maneuvers: +10%

Rhinoceros

rhinoceros horn

train/study tumbling attack: +5%

Sabretooth Tiger:

(Note: Sabretooth Juveniles do not count)
claw of the sabretooth

train/study parry: +4%

tooth of the sabretooth

train/study mastery of mounted combat: +5%

Shark

shark tooth

train/study discipline: +4%

Squid:

tentacle of squid

allows saddle on mount

Tiger;

tiger hide

train/study negate offhand penalty: +7%

Unicorn

unicorn horn

train/study stun: +4%

Hope you Have Friends and a Party Difficulty:

Chimera:

chimera's tail

train/study parry: +6%

Drake:

scales of a drake

train/study find weakness: +5%

Griphen:

wings of a griffon

train/study rampage: +5%

Seamonster:

scales of a seamonster

train/study discipline: +7%

tail of a seamonster

train/study riposte: +10%

Whale:

whale oil

train/study riposte: +10%

Unknown:

enormous fishbone

train/study hunting: +10%

head of feline

train/study stunned maneuvers: +10%

hide of the feline

train/study discipline: +6%

Offensive Skills/Spells:

A Quick Note about Riding + Skills:

The skills Riding and Combat Riding, plus the size/level of your mount will enhance many of your skills when you are on your mount.
This is why many of the skills in the guild can only be trained to a low percentage. You are expected to get bonuses when riding your mount.
Skills that are impacted by this:

Attack
Combat Riding
Dodge
Mastery of Mounted Combat
Parry
Polearms
Rampage
Riposte
Shield Bash
Throw Weight

Tzarakk Focused Offensive Skills/Spells:

(Skill) Bestial Frenzy

Description: Increases your strength and constitution. It may also speed up regeneration
Training Priority: (Medium)

It's a nice bonus, but would be better if it lasted longer
Good skill to use while on an EXP party where you aren't stopping to regen

Notes:

You can only invoke this when fighting. So pick an "easy fight that will last a few rounds" to use this.
You can start using it though before you are fighting. You only need to be fighting when it triggers, not when you "use" it.
You'll get a lot of messages from this telling you if you are starting to calm down.
It becomes less effective over time as it wears off. So your stat bonuses will start to go down as you calm down.
Now sure how training % impacts the effects of this skill

(Skill) Charge

Description: An advanced attack that requires you to be mounted and wielding a polearm
Training Priority: (Low)

It's a decent attack. It might find a good spot in your rotation in the middle levels of the guild, but you are probably going to be using other skills instead.
It's also an expensive EP skill to use (32 endurance points). Given how EP constrained Tzarakk's are, this can cause problems.

Notes:

I believe this skill will make Rampage better, so you will want to eventually train this skill
In addition to the main hits (detailed below) there is also a chance to score a follow up attack with your main weapon. This will show up as the message: "...And you turn suddenly and STRIKE again."
All in all, charge is a pretty decent attack, and seems to outperform Clawed Strike if you only have one or two tentacles.

Damage Messages (Worst to Best): Disclaimer, these are hard to rank so the below ranking likely has errors.

You charge towards your enemy, but alas -- a clean miss
Your foe ducks under your weapon, so you run him down instead!
You charge at your enemy and knock him to the ground
Just before riding past, you turn your weapon sideways and bludgeon your foe in
the face!
You thrust at your foe and force him under your trampling mount
You stab downwards from your steed, nailing your opponent in the gut!
As you charge past, you score a freely-bleeding neck hit!
You guide your mount with your knees and *THUNK* your weapon into your foe!

(Skill) Dismount

Description: Active skill that gives you a chance to dismount opponents
Training Priority: (Low/Skip)

I'll be up front, I've never found a use for this skill.
By that I mean, I've never used it successfully. Finding opponents that are vulnerable to this is not easy.

(Skill) Rampage

Description: The top tier Tzarakk offensive skill. This is what you'll be using until you dual-class into Reavers and get better attacks. Note: While you can train it early on, it doesn't become useful until you have it trained to a high level
Training Priority: (For your first 10 levels, low/skip. After you can train it to 40% start maxing it out)

It's not useful until you get it to around 40%. Before that, it won't be effective so you should be using other attacks.
Much of your ability to train this skill will be enhanced by trophies you collect, and the level of your mount. This acts as a gating function so getting trophies early and leveling up your mount will help you a lot.
This skilll is also influenced by your trample, charge, and combat riding skill %
This skill can be improved through use vs. training it. Between the mount bonus, the trophy bonus, and normal training, getting these skill-ups by using Rampage is the only way to get the skill to 100%.

Notes:

The "failure" message for this is that your mount does not respond. The nice thing is that when the skill fails it does not initiate combat. This makes Rampage a decent skill to start combat with since failures are "free" in the fact that the monster won't start attacking you when you miss.
The damage is nice but not great. Basically if you have a lot of Chaos Spawn rep and are transformed, Clawed Strike does more damage. But this is a decent "default" attack until you rank up a secondary guild.
This skill will cause you to attack with both of your weapons and then adds a "trample" attack on top of it.

This does not cause you to attack with additional attacks such as a Minotaur's horns or Chaos Spawn tentacles.
Info thanks to the player Ralmaz

3 hits, double wielded (each hand with ruby spear) - 123 123 114
3 hits, shield + ruby spear - 103 119 126

Damage Messages (Worst to Best):

Your mount snorts and does not respond.
You drive your {{Mount}} against {{Target}} in a ferocious clash.

{{Target}} spins and falls like a ragdoll from the force of the rampage
{{ Target}} nearly loses consciousness after the assault, falling like a felled tree

(Skill) Trample

Description: An beginner offensive skill that you can do on your mount
Training Priority: (Low initially. High once you can train Rampage to 40%)

Kick is a better and more constant offensive skill
The only reason to train this is I heard it makes Rampage better

Notes:

This does more damage the bigger you and your mount are
This probably impacts Rampage, which makes it easier to justify training.

Damage Messages (Worst to Best):

{{ Target }} jumps aside at the last minute.
{{ Target }} gets little more than bruises.
{{ Target }} gets kicked around a bit.
{{ Target }} gets knocked aside
{{ Target }} gets pushed over and stepped on
{{ Target }} gets repeatedly kicked in the chest!

(Spell) Fury of Nature

Description: Area attack spell. Costs a ton of spell points, but super cool
Training Priority: (Low)

This is a very situational spell. If it wasn't for the "rule of cool" I'd say skip it
I'm told that most players blow a ton of EXP on this spell and then regret it. Hold off and don't study it. If you find yourself in situations where you wish you had it, then go study it the next time you are at the guild.

Notes:

This can only be cast in outdoor areas where nature is present
This spell doesn't need a target. It will attack everyone else in the room.
I haven't seen if this targets party members, but it will target everything else.
The damage is Ok(ish). Nothing crazy, and probably not worth the 200+ spell points required to cast it.
I've heard this spell has a chance to stun targets which is nice.

Damage Message:

You growl furiously 'Grrrnaakk Azt-Glassyallobolas'
As you call upon the forces of Tzarakk your surroundings start to twist and distort into morbid mutations. The ground howls soulessly as demonic forces rip through it and dark spectral tentacles sprout violently about, in search of prey.
A spectral tentacle darts at {{Target} and grabs him.
The spectral tentacles retreat into the ground, and everything grows unnervingly still once more

(Spell) Summon Beasts

Description: Summons monsters to help you in battle for a short period of time
Training Priority: (Low)

This is a very situational spell. If it wasn't for the "rule of cool" I'd say skip it
I'm told that most players blow a ton of EXP on this spell and then regret it. Hold off and don't study it. If you find yourself in situations where you wish you had it, then go study it the next time you are in the guild.

Notes:

You can only summon beasts in "outdoor" areas.
The beasts summoned by this will only stay in the room you summoned them in

(Spell) Summon Dire Boar

Description: Summons a boar that will follow you around and protect you in wilderness areas for around 15 minutes.
Training Priority: (Low)

This helps when you are hunting for trophies, but it won't help you in most areas as the boar won't follow you into them.
It's not a bad spell, just a situational one.

Notes:

To use this spell you need to name your boar first using the "tzarakk baptize" command. You can also use this command to change the name of your boar later on if you don't like your original choice.
You can only cast this in "nature" rooms. Mostly this means the outerworld.
The boar seems to stick around for around 15 minutes. It will follow you around like a mage's floating disc. It just won't follow you into a lot of areas.
After the boar leaves you, the spell goes on a cooldown for 100 minutes. You need to wait that long before you can summon it again.
You can give additional commands to the boar using the "boar" command.

Other Offensive Skills/Spells:

(Skill) Clawed Strike

Description: The main attack skill for Chaos Spawns
Training Priority: (Depends on how much you are transformed. High if you use Chaos Spawn a lot)

You'll eventually be using Rampage, but this is a solid attack skill that gives you a huge boost in the first 10-15 levels of the Tzarakk guild.

Notes:

See the guide for Disciples of Chaos for more information about this skill. Link

(Skill) Impale

Description: A polearm attack that works when you are on foot
Training Priority: (Low)

It's nice to have a skill to use when you are not riding your mount. But you won't be using this much

Notes:

This skill only works when you are on foot. If you are riding your mount, use Charge instead.
This might impact Rampage, which makes it easier to justify training.
One huge plus is you can use this skill from the 2nd row of a party. So if you have a highbie dragging you around this allows you to skill do damage if you are willing to lead your mount vs. ride it.

(Skill) Kick

Description: A more advanced attack than Push
Training Priority: (Depends)

It's purely a "Newbie skill". Once you start using Rampage you will not use Kick. Also if you spend a lot of time transformed as a Chaos Spawn, you'll be using clawed strike
That being said, I've gotten a lot of use out of it as I've been leveling up.
This is a solid reliable skill that does damage. At only 15 EP per use, I've had good success with it and haven't regretted spending 700,000k getting trained up to 80%
Still, that's a serious investment for a skill you won't be using later on.
I've heard it might impact Rampage, in which case training Kick is a lot easier to justify

Damage Messages (Worst to Best):

You aim a fast kick at {{Target}}'s head, but miscalculate and only manage to
bruise a shoulder slightly
You kick {{Target}} in the groin very hard making the foe double up in pain
You swing your foot heavily, and {{Target}}'s kneecap makes a sickening 'CRACK!'

(Skill) Kiss of Death

Description: A neutral (non-offensive) skill that will let you mark targets. You will do more damage with your skills to marked targets. Finally, Kiss of Death will give a (very small) amount of health back to you when you kill a marked target.
Training Priority: (Low)

The damage bonus is nice but not worth the three rounds to cast it.

Notes:

I was seeing it only give around 1 hitpoint and EP when it triggered after I killed a marked creature. Maybe higher level creatures give more?
You will see a message when the target takes more damage thanks to this skill. Aka when this triggers it does a separate "hit" vs. enhancing the damage of the original attack skill.

(Skill) Mangle

Description: Advanced version of Impale. Will only work with a polearm and when you are dismounted
Training Priority: (Low)

Expensive and you'll likely never use it in combat as you'll be using Rampage instead.

Notes:

This skill only works when you are on foot. If you are riding your mount, use Charge instead.
This might impact Rampage, which makes it easier to justify training.
This skill also works from the 2nd row of a party, which gives you some options if you aren't in the front row.

(Skill) Shield Bash

Description: This will enhance the damage you do with a shield
Training Priority: (High if you have a shield)

I recommend you wield a shield, so this is a good skill
Obviously, if you don't use a shield you can skip this skill

Notes:

Shields help prevent the damage you take from critical hits. Having a shield will save your life.
Even with this skill, shields will still not do much damage. But every bit helps!

Offensive Support Skills/Spells:

(Skill) Attack

Description: Core skill that determines if you hit with your normal attacks
Training Priority: (Very High to 70%)

You will get a 30% bonus due to your background
You will also get an attack bonus due to riding a mount
After getting Attack to 100%, every % is only worth 1/4. So you need to train it to 104% to see any improvement from 100%
Still, even at a reduced value, there's certainly worse things to spend EXP on than maxing out Attack.

Notes:

This will also impact the success of your "cause X wounds" spells.

(Skill) Choreography of Mutilation

Description: It's a mastery skill so I assume it makes Clawed Strike better
Training Priority: (Medium to Racial Max)

Mastery skills are almost always worthwhile to train
I'd rank this higher if I knew more about what it does

Notes:

See the guide for Disciples of Chaos for more information about this skill. Link

(Skill) Combat Damage Analysis

Description: This will tell you if the monster you are fighting has any resistances
Training Priority: (Low)

Once you become a high level character and have multiple damage options, this can be helpful, but for most players there's not a whole lot you can do if you find out a monster resists physical damage.
Since you have some access to cause light/serious wounds (thanks to your Evil Religious background) which ignore all resistances you can switch to those against monsters with high physical resists. So this skill is rated at "Low" vs. "Skip"

Notes:

You need to use this skill in combat. It's not a passive skill or something you can use before combat like consider.

(Skill) Combat Riding

Description: At higher levels of this your mount will take more hits that were meant for you, and those hits will do less damage. Also impacts the effectiveness of other riding skills
Training Priority: (Very High to train to max level)

This is a core skill for Tzarakks. This helps your survivability and damage

Notes:

I don't know if this will help you avoid being knocked off your mount as well

(Skill) Enhance Criticals

Description: Increases the damage of your critical hits
Training Priority: (High)

More damage is always good
You will be doing a lot of attacks, so the bursty nature of critical hit chances will even out a bit. You'll likely be getting at least one critical hit in every longer fight.

Notes:

I don't know how much an actual impact this skill has on critical damage

(Skill) Find Weakness

Description: It increases your damage in some form or fashion. Not really sure what it does though.
Training Priority: (High)

More damage is good, and this is a passive skill so it's always in effect. Other players seem to consider it valuable too, so you might as well max this out.

Notes:

I thought based on the description this increases your critical strike chance, but that probably isn't right.

(Skill) Mastery of mounted combat

Description: Increases effectiveness of mounted attack skills including Rampage
Training Priority: (Very High)

This makes your attacks better. Get it.

Notes:

I'm not sure if this has any impacts beyond increasing your attack damage of mounted skills such as Trample, Charge, and Rampage.

(Skill) Negate Offhand Penalty

Description: Your left hand weapon is less likely to hit than your right hand weapon. This reduces that penalty
Training Priority: (Medium/High)

More hits = more damage
The only reason this isn't high is that you might be wielding a shield in your offhand, so the improved damage isn't that great
If you are using cause wounds spells this is very important since you are likely leaving your left hand free for them. Since you need to "hit" with your attack for the spell to fire, this makes the spell more reliable.

Notes:

I'm not sure what the actual off-hand penalty is or the actual impact this skill has.

(Skill) Riding

Description: For other Nomad guilds, the ride skill impacts what creatures you can ride. Not sure how that impacts Tzarakk steeds though. It may help keep you from being knocked off in combat.
Training Priority: (High)

This is a mount focused guild. It stands to reason that the Riding skill is super important, even if I don't know exactly what it does.

Notes:

If you know how the riding skill helps Tzarakk players please let me know!
I believe that a higher ride skill also lets you wield bigger weapons easier and provides a bonus to some of your skills like Attack.

(Skill) Stun

Description: Gives you a chance to stun monsters, increasing the damage they take and breaking any skill/spell attempts they are getting ready
Training Priority: (Low)

This is not a reliable skill, and until you get it trained up to a very high level, your target will likely be able to resist these stuns
I trained it because I had extra EXP, but I rarely see it make a difference in my fights.

Notes:

This is a passive skill so it will give you a flat chance to stun your opponent every round

(Skill) Switch Weapon

Description: Lets you wield and unwield weapons in combat
Training Priority: (Medium)

This is a situational skill, but one that is super nice when you need it.
The most likely need for this skill is when you run out of endurance points, you can unwield your secondary weapon to start casting "cause X wounds".

Notes:

This skill is automatically in effect so a check will be performed when you try to unwield a weapon in combat
Like everything, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. You can spam the unwield command to ensure your unwield works.

(Skill) Throw Weight

Description: Increases the damage you do based on your character's size and strength
Training Priority: (Very High)

More damage is always nice

Notes:

I don't know how much of an impact this skill actually has. If anyone has hard data I'd love if you would share it.

(Skill) Tumbling Attack

Description: Gives you a chance to hit your target even if they successfully dodge your first strike
Training Priority: (Medium)

More damage is always good, and most monsters can dodge attacks. Still this is more a high level skill vs. something that newer players will really benefit from a lot.
To put it another way, it won't have a huge impact in most of your fights until you start fighting monsters/players with a very high dodge, and you have this skill trained up 50%+

Notes:

What is cool is you can see how many times this skill gave you extra hits in your "show summary" output.

These will show up like "Dodged: 78 (Tumbled: 26)"
This means that my targets dodged 78 times total this session, but I still hit them 26 of those times due to my tumbling attack.

Defensive Skills/Spells:

(Skill) Alertness

Description: Helps prevent you from getting ambushed
Training Priority: (Very High)

Avoiding getting ambushed and being able to flee will save your life many times
Also this is a quality of life improvement to be able to keep going when traveling and avoid fights.

Notes:

I don't think this applies when you are in a party. In that case, Leadership is the skill that determines if your party gets ambushed

(Skill) Camping

Description: Allows you to regen hitpoints, spellpoints, and endurance points, at the cost of having to idle for a couple of minutes.
Training Priority: (High to Racial Max)

As a Tzarakk you have other ways to heal up and regen, but still this is nice to have
It also makes Bard healing spells more effective on you.

Notes:

This has a 5-10 minute cooldown I think to prevent you from spamming this skill
The effectiveness of this is enhanced by a campfire if there is one in the room.

(Skill) Combat Sense

Description: This skill makes your armor more effective. At 50% it will essentially increase your armor protection by two tier levels.
Training Priority: (Very High)

I'll admit, as a Tzarakk you are already pretty beefy with your mount. This will make you more beefy against melee attacks.
As a passive skill, this is always in effect. It'll make you much more effective as a tank and makes a noticeable difference in your survivability

Notes:

This only impacts armor effectiveness. I'm not sure if this is a flat bonus or a percentage bonus. Aka if it has increased impact the more armor you have.

(Skill) Defence Sense

Description: This skill increases your +avoid statistic. Basically you will be hit less which means you take less damage.
Training Priority: (Very High)

Less hits = more survivability
This is better than Dodge, since Dodge can be negated by tumbling attack.

Notes:

Hahaha, we get a defensive skill that Crimson warriors (the top-tier tanking class) do not have access to!!!

(Skill) Discipline

Description: Prevents you from being interrupted when you get hit hard
Training Priority: (Very High)

It's really annoying when your big hit gets interrupted. This is specifically a problem when you are going in and out to whittle a big monster down and they get extra big hits on you when you enter combat

Notes:

This doesn't prevent stuns. It just help keeps your attacks from being interrupted.

(Skill) Dodge

Description: Prevents you from being interrupted when you get hit hard
Training Priority: (Low until you can train it to 40%. Then High)

Dodge is a weird defensive skills since it doesn't do much at low levels since even when you dodge, most monsters can use tumbling attack to still target you.
It's only when you can get dodge trained up to 40+ that you will start to see it reduce the damage you take.
Eventually as you get it up to 70%+ it will become a huge source of damage reduction.

Notes:

Dodge is more effective the less weight you are carrying. So if you can reduce the weight of your armor (for example by getting it feather weighted) that will also increase the effectiveness of your dodging.

(Skill) Leadership

Description: Helps prevent you from getting ambushed when leading a party
Training Priority: (Medium)

Just like Alertness, but applies when you are leading a party.
Avoiding getting ambushed and being able to flee will save your life many times
The only reason I prioritize this less than Alertness is as a Newbie, you probably aren't going to be leading many parties.
Also this is a quality of life improvement to be able to keep going when traveling and avoid fights.

Notes:

I don't think this applies when you are in a party. In that case, Leadership is the skill that determines if your party gets ambushed

(Skill) Parry

Description: Allows you to block attacks, but at the cost of your own attacks being slower.
Training Priority: (Medium if soloing. High if tanking)

Tzarakk's already have some of the slowest hitting abilities due to their preference for polearms (big slow weapons). Reducing their slow attack speed by another 50% to enable parry means that almost all their damage will need to come from skills and other party members.
Long story short, if you are soloing, you probably won't use parry much. But parry is a key skill if you are the main tank for a party. In that case you are not expected to do much damage.

Notes:

Wielding a shield will make parrying more effective if you don't have Polearms trained to 100%. If you do have Polearms maxed out, a shield will not impact Parry's effectiveness.
You can enable/disable parry by using the command "parry X" where X is between 0 and 51.

If you set Parry to 0, that effectively disables parry
If you set Parry to 51, that maxes out your chance to parry, but reduces your attack speed by 51%.
There's rarely a need to choose a value in the middle. Either you want to attack or you want to defend.

While parry will slow down your attack speed, it does not slow down skill and spell usage.

Feel free to spam Cause X harm spells to make up for your attack speed reduction from parry.
As you do more and more of your damage via skills/spells, parry becomes a better choice to leave on all the time.

(Skill) Stunned Maneuvers

Description: Prevents you from being stunned
Training Priority: (Very High)

When you get stunned, it's pretty much always an instant "run away or die" situation. So anything that can prevent stuns will really help you out in the long run.
Even with parties, it is never a good day when your tank gets stunned and starts taking 2x their normal damage.

Notes:

Even if you max this skill out, you will still eventually get stunned. This just lessons the effect
You will see a message when this skill activates saying something along the lines of "You get stunned but shrug the effects off"

Other Skills/Spells:

(Skill) Various "Cast X" skills

Description: These increase the success rate of your spells. Cast Generic impacts all spells, while the other Cast X skills only impact spells of X type.
Training Priority: (High to Racial Max for Cast Generic. Medium/Low for Cast Chaos. Skip for Cast Control)

Cast Generic will help you with all your spells including healing and harm spells, so it is worth maxing out
The main reason to study Cast Chaos is to improve your success with summoning your mount with Steed of Tzarakk. If you are having good success with your mount summons you can skip further improving Cast Chaos
Cast Control is ... totally useless for this guild as far as I can tell.

Notes:

I don't know how much of an impact this skill actually has. If anyone has hard data I'd love if you would share it.

(Spell) Banish Mount

Description: This will despawn your mount. The main reason to do this is if you plan on going idle for a couple of hours or if your mount becomes hungry and non-responsive.
Training Priority: (Low)

It's a quality of life skill, but doesn't really matter all that much.
I mostly use this when my mount gets hungry and non-responsive. So I'll banish it, and then resummon it so it'll be well fed.

Notes:

By default your mount will stick around even if you go linkdead. Banish mount will kick them off before you log off.
The biggest advantage of this is that your mount will get hungry as it is waiting around. So if you plan on taking a couple hour break, using this spell will ensure you come back to a happy mount that doesn't require food before it can be ridden.
Another advantage is this will heal your mount up to full health when you resummon it.
The description says that once you use this spell you will need to wait around 15 minutes before you can summon your mount again. I haven't found this to be the case though, as I've been able to resummon my mount immediately.

(Skill) Ceremony

Description: When you use this, it will increase the success of your next spells
Training Priority: (Skip)

Tzarakk isn't a real big spellcasting guild, and the spells we do cast tend to be small, such as "cure light wounds". Taking time to use ceremony first is usually a waste of time

Notes:

The ceremony effect lasts quite a while, so if you are idling, then go ahead and use this skill because "why not?".

(Skill) Chaotic Defilement

Description: I believe this is a way to give your mounts resistances to certain types of damage. You do this by using this skill on the corpse of an outerworld monster you killed while wielding a dagger
Training Priority: (Skip)

This is an end-game highbie skill for getting ready to tackle top-tier monsters
As a lowbie/midbie you won't be using this skill at all

Notes:

You will inflict around 50 damage to yourself when you use this skill
There is a timer where you can only use this skill effectively once until that timer runs out

I'm not sure how long that timer is. Needs further research

I believe the bonus you get is better based on the EXP value of the creature you sacrifice with it.
General message when you use this skill:

You slash your wrists and raise your bleeding arms towards the skies howling and calling for chaotic deities. The skies turn dark and swirling clouds start to gather above you. The very moment the drops of life drained from your being hit the ground all living organisms wilt around the spot. Your body shakes a bit as a gust of chaos rushes through you. Purple glow surrounds you and the a hacked remains of {{Creature}}. Suddenly the glow vanishes and the corpse is gone.

Failure message (Appears at to the end of the above message)

You get the feeling that maybe this wasn't quite it. {{Your Mount's Name}} eyes flash briefly.

Failure due to the timer not being done:

You visualize memories of your last ritual and your concentration breaks effectively ruining the ritual.

(Skill) Consider

Description: Gives you an idea of how tough a fight you are going to have if you attack a creature.
Training Priority: (High to Racial Maximum)

I use this skill all the time when exploring a new area. It's saved my life more times than I can count
Consider is more "accurate" for melee/tank guilds than spellcasters. Since Tzarakk is a tank class, this means the information consider provides gives a good idea if a fight is doable or not.

Notes:

Here is a list of consider messages provided by the Batwiki: Link
The higher you have consider trained, the more information you get from it.

(Skill) Create Hunting Trophy

Description: Allows you to create hunting trophies from outerworld monster kills that provide reputation and bonuses in the guild. See the trophy section of this guide for more information
Training Priority: (High to 30-40%. Low afterward)

This skill is essential for collecting trophies which is something you absolutely want to be doing.
Not sure how training it higher actually helps you. I've never had this skill fail so if you notice adverse effects of that happening let me know.

Notes:

Sometimes I cast "preserve corpse" first to give me longer time to create the trophy. Nothing is more annoying than having a kill rise as an undead in the middle of using this skill.

(Spell) Defile Animal

Description: Allows you to turn outerworld animals aggressive so they will attack players.
Training Priority: (Skip unless you want to be a jerk)

This is 100% an anti-newbie playerkilling spell. There is no reason to be casting it.

Notes:

Occasionally people will use this spell on the creatures around Dortlewall or Arelium in the hopes of killing newbies.
Another place to use them is on creatures that wander onto roads so they will ambush players.
If people catch you doing this, they will playerkill you (rightfully) a lot over the course of the next couple of weeks. Don't be a jerk.

(Skill) Essence Eye

Description: Lets you see how many more rounds you have until a spell you are casting finishes
Training Priority: (Medium/Low)

It's certainly nice to see how long you have left to cast a spell, but as a Tzarakk you don't have a lot of long spells you are casting.
I primarily use it to see the impact that carrying too much has on me (since being overburdened slows down your spell casting)

Notes:

There is a special training option to see how long skills are going to take but that is a super highbie skill costing millions of experience per % trained.

(Spell) Eyes of Nature

Description: Gives you a view of the surrounding outerworld and highlights were there are creatures. It does not tell you what those creatures are though.
Training Priority: (Skip)

It can be somewhat helpful if you are hunting trophies and are playing a race with poor eyesight.
Still it's faster just to manually move around the area and find creatures the old fashioned way. It's not like EP moving costs matter since we have our mounts.
You can completely skip this spell and never miss it.

Notes:

This is a lot like some of the ranger observation skills, but monsters are marked on the map.
This will also work in areas that are "outside" such as the anthill

(Spell) Glance of Predator

Description: Allows you to look through the eyes of your steed
Training Priority: (Skip. Don't bother with this spell. Totally useless)

If you don't know where your steed is, you can always resummon it.

Notes:

When you cast it, you get a room description as if you were standing in that room.

This isn't a continuous view, just a snapshot.
You also can't look at detailed descriptions. Aka you can't leave your mount in a room to check on how a monster is regening.

I guess you could leave your steed somewhere to spy on people. But even that won't get you much since you just get a room description.
This is a trash spell that you will never use. Skip it.

(Skill) Harvest Soul

Description: Feeds souls of corpses you killed to your mount to heal them
Training Priority: (Medium)

It's useful when you need it, but you don't get reputation when you eat souls using this so you may want to heal your mount in other ways.
Also this heal only works when you kill a monster, so it's less useful if you are trying to whittle down a big monster.

Notes:

Your mount will fully heal each time its aura reputation cycles a level. So as a newbie you won't need to use this skill much.
You can also heal your mount by casting cure light wounds at it.

(Skill) Hiking

Description: Reduces the EP cost of traveling in the outerworld. Once you get hiking high enough you can use "travel" on paths in the outerworld
Training Priority: (Low)

Hiking is disabled when you are riding a mount so while normally this is a super useful skill, it is less useful as a Tzarak

Notes:

I need to figure out at what level Hiking lets you follow paths. That may be worth dismounting, leading your mount, and then using hiking to quickly travel paths.

(Skill) Hunting

Description: Lets you use hunting to catch food in the outerworld
Training Priority: (Skip. Totally useless skill)

If you are worried about food, Evil Religious characters get the spell "create food" with your background

Notes:

The food you catch with hunting can be made better if you cook it on a campfire.

(Spell) Preserve Corpse

Description: Freezes a coprse. Frozen corpses will not rise as undead and will last longer depending on your INT and spell %.
Training Priority: (Low)

I actually like this spell, but that being said, it's a very low priority spell to train
There are times it is nice to keep a corpse around. Some quests/tasks require you to bring a corpse, and you can keep a corpse or two stored in your saddlebags as emergency "snacks" for your steed.

Notes:

Todo: I need to time how long frozen corpses last.

(Skill) Raise Mount

Description: Will raise a corpse from an outerworld animal as a potential mount
Training Priority: (Skip. It might be cool if you kill a really big monster, but I've never found a good use for this. Your current mount is pretty good)

I haven't checked to see if someone else can ride the risen mount. If they can, then this might be useful if you are in a party.

Notes:

The animal you kill for this needs to be pretty big (aka bigger than a zebra), otherwise you will not be able to ride it.
You can lead the risen mount, and you can put a saddlebag on it if you want.

(Skill) Steed of Tzarakk

Description: Summons your mount
Training Priority: (Top/Very High priority to 40%. Medium after that for quality of life improvements)

Without a mount you aren't much of a Tzarakk follower. This should be the first thing you train.
At 40% it becomes somewhat reliable to cast, which means you can defer training it more.
Considering I cast this spell several times ever playing session, training it up higher is nice so I don't have to worry about it failing. Having this spell be reliable speeds things up.

Notes:

You can cast this spell to summon your mount to you even if it has already been summoned once.

Aka if you get knocked off your mount and need to flee, you can resummon your mount vs. having to go back in and rescue it.

If your mount has saddlebags equipped, if you resummon it the bags will be summoned with it.

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