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Some questions from a newbie
Hey guys!
I'm an old time IRE player but a definite Lusternia newbie. I've spent countless hours in Achaea, and in the past when I'd try Lusternia out, I found that I loved the atmosphere, but would get overwhelmed with the differences that took me years to learn in Achaea, so I'd always find myself returning there.
That said, I've been absent from all Muds for a while and when I returned there, it too has changed dramatically. So I'm now at a point where I basically need to relearn Achaea from scratch or venture on to new worlds. In my eyes, it's the perfect time to make the migration to Lusternia.
I have a few questions though before I begin devoting a lot of time and money to the game though.
The skills and the whole system seem vastly different from what I'm used to. Can you guys give me a breakdown of what sort of archetypes are best in the following:
1. Cheapest in terms of skill investment to start casual and group combat - I really enjoy city defense and raids
2. Best archetype for group combat - what sort of archetypes have the most group fight utility?
3. What archetypes give the most general utility (buffs, revives, travel, etc.)
Also, what sort of city conflict is going on or is the most prevalent? I like to be in a very active conflict city. In Achaea, Mhaldor was always my city of choice because they always had people upset with them, which led to constant conflict. I loved that.
Right now I'm leaning toward Glomdoring. The lore just seems awesome, and I love what I'm reading about Shadowdancers Wiccans and the Druids. Quick questions on those points:
1. Does Glom raid/get raided often? If not, could you suggest a city or commune that would be fitting?
2. Are druids and their melds very fun/useful? If another druid is melding, does that limit other druids in the same area/raid, or can they meld on top of another's?
3. Can wiccans still kill by setting up a choke? I read a post on the forum a long time ago that had a detailed guide on wiccan combat, and setting up a choke into a toadstomp sounded awesome (can't find the post naywhere but it talked about both MD and SD wiccans - it was really good).
4. Is there anything I should be worried about with the combat overhaul? Is that gimping/buffing affliction classes like wiccans?
Finally, coat tailing on that last question, is M&M worth buying right now or is coding a custom system worth the time given the new combat overhaul talk? I don't know much about it other than that its changing the afflictions, so not sure if now is the time to start getting into combat, or if I should just wait on learning all that once the combat system changes?
Thanks for reading!
2
(c) Iron Realms Entertainment 2012.
Comments
Druids and their melds are extremely useful. I've never found melds fun, but some people do (I think?). They can't meld over top of one another, but you can have multiple in an area.
Shadowdancers are awesome but they no longer have choke. It was replaced with shadowtwist.
The combat overhaul is so far out that it's hard to say when the end result will look like.
Lusternia is very complicated right now and coding your own combat system would be pretty daunting. I wouldn't count on the overhaul finalising any time soon either (at the rate we're moving, minimum of a year, my guess).
The other major focal point of bards, especially in groups, is perfect fifth, which prevents the target from leaving unless they are deaf.
That might give you some idea of expectation here.
1) The cheapest in terms of credit/lesson investment to get up and running in combat might be bard or monk. I'm not entirely sure of the other archetypes and which of their guild skills are required for combat, but I know bards can (theoretically) play a big role in fights just with aurics (not even trans). Their secondary and tertiary skills are usually extras that help them survive, not absolutely essential to combat. Of course, if you have nothing but aurics, you WILL be fairly limited. Monks too, have the majority, if not all, of their offense in a single skillset. They do not need their secondaries and tertiaries to kill or achieve their instakills. Monk combat, however, is fairly complicated, and the time investment needed to get up and running may be more than any other archetype. My personal opinion is that half of the fight as a monk takes place before it begins - when you create your kata forms and customise them, since it is not really possible to change/edit them on the fly in combat.
2) In group combat, aoe effects can play a huge role. The most aoe-centric archetype is the mage/druid archetype. However, the problem with playing one is that you will be the first target, and when outnumbered, you will find it near to impossible to set up your aoe. If there's a better mage/druid on your side, you will often find you are asked to let them do the aoe instead, as well. Bards are the next aoe class, and they also synergize very well with pretty much every other class in their org. They don't have much killing power solo, though, aurics as mentioned above, is pretty much the only way to kill as a Bard solo, and against opponents who know how to avoid it, you'll find it extremely difficult to make progress or finish the fight. The other classes don't have as much aoe, but they all bring different roles to the fight - guardians/wiccans are very hindering, and have several high threat abilities that make it very dangerous to ignore them, like aeon and the such. Warriors have access to some of the most debilitating afflictions in the game, but takes time, or many other warriors, to achieve them quickly. When they do get the wound momentum they need on the target, however, those afflictions can easily lock down an opponent in group settings and is fairly difficult to cure out of. Monks are like warriors on crack, since they are not reliant on that wound momentum and can put out afflictions as well as damage more easily, but on the flip side, they lose their momentum very fast if hindered.
3) The best non combat utility skills have recently been discussed. If I remember correctly, tarot was pointed out as one of the good skillsets (you'll be familiar with most of its utility, it's very similar to Achaea's) and that's available to City guardian/bards. Communes don't get tarot. The link to the thread is here: http://forums.lusternia.com/discussion/1291
For the second set of questions:
1) Generally speaking raids don't happen too often - recently Glomdoring did some raiding and was raided a little more frequently than usual, though that seems to have died down in the past 2 days or so. The communes DO seem to be the more often raided/raiding org, partly because Faethorn is one of the few areas that conflict can easily erupt from - and it's "shared" between the two communes. A small 1v1 can escalate pretty fast into a decently sized raid, depending on the timezone and people around.
2) Druids/mages and their melds are usually the most important aspect of combat, all other things remaining equal, because there can only be a single person's meld in a room, and the aoe effects it provides can give a significant advantage. Numbers or certain strategies can counter that, of course, so it's not a sure win, but suffice to say it can play a very important role in securing a fight or turning the tables. Because only one person can have a meld in the room, many fights boil down to which side can keep their meld up over the other side, though that also means only one druid/mage on your side can hold a meld in the room. Extra druid/mages aren't useless, however, since the more friendly druid/mages you have in your team, the easier it is to maintain a friendly meld, because only druid/mages have the abilities needed to break or make a meld, and the extra druid/mages can help their primary melder upkeep theirs over the enemy's if there's a number advantage.
3) Choke no longer exists, as mentioned, but the aeon effect is still around, and remains a major part of Moondancer combat. Shadowdancers also have aeon, albeit in a slightly less controlled form, but with additional effects. The exact details and differences between MD/SD combat can be explained if you wish. Generally speaking, toadstomp remains the wiccans' go-to kill method, and both SDs and MDs have ways to drain mana in which aeon plays a part. The nature of mana kills also means that the more people you have on your side, the easier it is to pull it off, a concept you should be familiar with, since priest sapping is an old, tried and tested combat strategy in other IREs as well. Wiccans thus synergize well with their guildmates, and also their orgmates.
4) The overhaul is too long away to factor into considerations at this point in time, in my opinion.
M&M comes with constant updates, and if the Overhaul goes through, I think Vadi will convert M&M for it as well. I'm not Vadi, of course, but I'd be surprised if he doesn't. It works well in the current combat scene, with decent customisation options and fairly good support.
Don't be afraid to roll a newbie in each and try them out.
I concur, Bard is the easiest to learn and cheapest to pick up and play with. Aurics are easy to learn and easy to track. I will warn you that there is a ceiling for solo bard pk. There people with enough health and passive healing/curing to tank you forever. Octave can also be an easily countered and frustrating mechanic to deal with. The good news is you are rarely the first target in groups, which gives you the freedom to set people up for quick kills.
SD is easy to learn but more expensive to be successful with. There are a lot of skills in Night that allow an SD to dictate the terms of the fight (bonds, brumetower). That being said, we share them with Ebonguard so it's rare for Glom to NEED an SD around for those skills. SD is fun, and there are exceedingly few things about the guild that are unique aside from player driven environment and canon lore (which are amazing, if I may toot my own guild's horn). You also have to deal with the unfortunate fact that everyone will steal your toad kills. You won't get the credit, nor the xp the vast majority of the time, which can be really frustrating if you are a PKer and like your ego fueled by deathsight spam (like me). The guild also happens to be wildly power intensive, you will run out of power before everyone else, even the mage. If you build your character correctly, you can also be one of the highest damage dealers in the game. You can also be extremely resistant to damage kills. The biggest downside is you have ONLY ONE way to kill people in solo combat, which is tedious for some.
The easiest bard spec to learn on is Cantor. Highest damage potential, solid damage mitigation when you need it, aeon spam for group support.
Spiritsingers are more complicated but also have the most potential for effective solo PK.
Harbingers are easily the best at team support. Their bleeding and increase to all mana drains for the team is hugely appreciated. They can be the linch pin in a successful group fight. Reasonable solo capabilities. Not great though.
Necroscream has some nice skills that are useful, but generally the worst bard guild by a large margin. Solid active hindering ability though.
I don't know much about minstrelry, other than they can be the best tanks in the game. Very solid damage.
No clue about loralaria. There was one bard once that abused their new tertiary to great effect, but after that, he faded away. Haven't really been any since then. No idea what they are really capable of.
I can break down SD combat if you're interested. Choke is gone, our offense revolves around 1 skill (shadowtwist) and bursting down mana. I'll save if for another time if you are set on bard though!
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.