New Player Questions

Xenix

Hello!

I have played and enjoyed my time on some other IRE muds, but there is something about Lusternia that keeps trying to pull me in. I have made several characters trying to poke around a bit and get a feel for things and I am getting to the point where I am feeling like I would enjoy if I took the plunge and came over full time. Before I do I have a few questions that are sort of awkward to ask in the game. So I am hoping you guys can help me out here!

Just as an aside, I am someone who enjoys combat and I know there is a certain level of buy in to be capable.

For some of these questions I know the game is very complex, and opinions, classes, city, etc matter. I am really just looking for base line, general feel type of thing (I hope that made sense).

Combat Questions

1. I know probably most of the skills being Trans is a must, but as far as artifacts go what kind of buy in would I be looking at to not just get run over in fights?
2. Is most combat that happens done in groups or 1v1 or is there a nice mix?
3. I have been drawn to the guardian/wiccan mage/druid archtypes and I was wondering how viable a mage that takes the meld branch (it looks like a more solo looking branch is available for some) is at 1 on 1? (this might not matter much if the answer above is 'groups')
4. Coming from another IRE mud I am wondering why not all equil based classes aren't running around as mugwump? It seems to me like level 3 faster equil is crazy. I've noticed several who are in a race that doesn't even have a equil bonus. What am I missing?
5. What does group combat look like? By this I mean, does a group just sit in a mages little power area and try to pull the other group in while they are doing the same? Is it a ranged fight? What role to the melded areas actually play? Is it just a 'who can put out the most dps' kind of fight, or is there more strategy and working together that goes into it?
6. What are fights usually over? Do they happen frequently?
7. What are people expecting to see with the overhaul that's happening?

Non-Combat Questions

1. The role play here seems great. There is a lot written on the lore, the guilds and cities seem to be focused and in game you really feel like you are being immersed in a different universe. How much does this fade as you get higher level and more involved in guild/cities/combat?
2. Are there any cities/forests or professions that you would not recommend to a new person?
3. Cities/forest or professions you would recommend?
4. Is the population pretty evenly distributed or are there 'dead pockets'?
5. How do people usually 'hunt'? By killing things or influencing things? Or by influencing then killing things?
6. How common is it for players to change cities or guilds? Do people do it out of boredom or they want to try x-y-z profession or because role play led them to it?

I'm sure I have others, but I can't think of them right now and I feel like this post is already a lot longer than I intended! Any other tidbits or advice anyone would like to share would be welcome as well!

Thanks in advance!

Altrea

Combat1: I'll let somebody else answer that.
Combat2: Groups mostly, that I've noticed. Most 1v1 fighting tends to be in the arena. (EDIT1: There are always exceptions)
Combat3: Mages can be quite viable 1v1 (though melder v. melder can be hilariously mindnumbing).
Combat4: RP, other races have various advantages (high survivability, high charisma for psionics, balance bonus for Illuminati and runist mages).
Combat5: Group combat ranges from "meld and pull" to "spam damage, hinder if you can't" depending on the situation. Generally, everybody focusing the same target will get that target killed. Melds are heavy-afflicting and can be timed to drop all their effects on somebody at once (which is generally done), providing a huge amount of hindrance every 8 seconds and some damage in some cases while the mage is free to attack further.
Combat6: Territory, people raiding and defending, people generally hating each other.
Combat7: Refraining from comment.

Non1: RP happens as you want it to happen, generally. Level doesn't make much of a difference, and involvement can only increase it.
Non2: I wouldn't recommend warrior unless you know what you're getting into beforehand, but otherwise no.
Non3: Bard is actually fairly easy for new players, but play what you think you'll have fun with.
Non4: The latter, honestly.
Non5: Generally, killing or influencing. I'm sure you could do both, but it's really faster and more reliable just to do one or the other. At the moment, Influencing (if you can stack it well enough) is considered the fastest form of experience gain, and unless you're a 90+ warrior with knowledge of bashing areas, likely gold as well.
Non6: Common enough. Might get you ostracised by your old city/commune, might not. Some do it out of boredom, some RP it. It's up to the player, really.

EDIT1: I should probably say something other than just quick answers. Honestly, it all comes down to "do what you want to do" for the most part (within reason). It's a game, make choices based on whether you'll have fun with them. Generally, somebody familiar with a class will field questions if you have more specific ones, Most people really are more than willing to try to recruit you or bring you to their side, so while I do recommend asking if you have questions, take anything with a grain of salt. And... I realise this paragraph is extremely disjointed, as are many of my answers, and I apologise for that.

But yeah, welcome to Lusternia!

Elanorwen

Combat questions:

1. Depends on class. A greater meld rune is useful for a mage, but not a must, must have. Of course, if you plan to be a primary melder, then it really becomes a must.
2. Almost all combat happens in groups. 1v1 fights are a rarity and usually only happen in the arena/when agreed upon by both sides.
3. There really isn't a 'solo' mage branch. The regular melding is group oriented and so is the chemantics spec with their power-skills hitting everyone on the enemy list.
4. Survivability. A primary melder needs to be hardy. A mugwump with the fire weakness and low con is just a walking target. More often than not I'm actually playing a race that's not a terribly high int either only for the reason of being able to take a larger beating. A melder will be a primary target in a fight. You don't want to be falling over as soon as someone looks at you.
5. A lot of fighting does devolve to groups sitting in adjacent rooms and trying to pull important targets in (melders, heavy enemy hitters, etc) Melds are quite important to a fight. Have seen a group devolving as soon as the meld war shifts.
6. Revolts, domoths, some raiding usually. Random skirmishes here and there.
7. Don't know, personally. It's supposed to simplify combat to a point where it's more accessible. Some of the changes that have happened so far seem to be making things rather more complicated in my personal opinion and making it necessary to alter class tactics, up to and including changing the whole way a class used to work up to this point.


Non-combat questions:
1. Depends on you for the most part. How much do you feel like wanting to be immersed? Some people just fight, others roleplay to a higher or lesser extent.
2. No
3. That's a matter of personal choice. I personally love playing a melder more than any other class.
4. Certain organizations do have a lower population than others. Currently, Glomdoring is experiencing a low volume. Hallifax is usually pretty low on numbers, too.
5. Depends on the person. Lately it's mostly been a case of big groups bashing astral. There's multitudes of other options, of course. Influencing is a good way to solo gain experience with little to no risk involved. There's always the possibility of manning an aethership and going dragon/whatever hunting too.
6. Yet again depends on the person. Some jump ship quite often, others have been known to pick a guild and stick with it.

Synkarin

The overhaul isn't so much simplifying as just removing the bloat of afflictions and balances and cure methods and limiting it down to something more linear and tangible. It should still be complex, if not more complex, than it was, given that every class will be working with the same basic affliction set, and not really unique afflictions like before (ie cloudcoils, ecto etc). A lot of 'filler' afflictions are being removed and some afflictions that were previously 'filler' may be buffed to be more useful (healthleech and clumsiness comes to mind).

Combat is primarily groups, though you can get individual combat, but you have to seek it out and even if you try to jump someone 1v1, they'll probably call their friends in (which is ok, you can call your buddies in). 

Group combat is really fun, imo, because yes, you sometimes get staring contests, you can also get some pretty varying, wildly different tactics (turtling, rushing, separation, suicide runs etc). While numbers play a part in success, more numbers doesn't always mean a win. My experiences with Achaea and Aetolia group combat scenarios (limited experiance that is), I think there's a wider degree of available tactics that can be successful here.  

Xenix

Thank you all who have left feedback so far. It has all been very informative. 

What would a good race be for a mage/guardian? I'm guessing you want a decent balance between con and int, cha is also something I am not use to considering.

Enyalida

My experience is that Lusternian group combat is far more stand-offish and static than Achaean and Aetolian combat, because the other games have a wider array of options for attacking enemies at range. More classes have a wider selection of afflictions and skills they can use, often to hit enemies who are anywhere in the same area, certainly more than exist in Lusternia. 

Shuyin

"I sure had fun dying the moment I entered an area and didn't even see my killers in the same room" said no one ever.

Everiine

You can find RP just about everywhere, especially if you initiate it. I am far, far more likely to interact with someone who uses short custom emotes and prefaces their says than I am someone who walks around asking, "How many health points will this artifact give me at my level?" . Generally, if you show an interest in RP, other people who are just as interested will notice and be more than happy to engage you.

Aerotan

Welcome! We'll see how many of these we can answer.

Caveat: I suck at combat, ask any real combatant, but my information doesn't always.

Combat:

 1 - Depends on the guild. Mages have a pretty low bar sometimes, I think it's just a couple of runes to be combat viable, and a few toys to make life easier. Warriors have to shell out da beeg bux, which as I understand it is one of the reasons for the Overhaul.

2 - Generally group-based. Even our War Seal event, which is the tournament to find the biggest bad###es in the game is 3v3

3 - Depends on your tertiary specialisation for most guilds. I understand that Dreamweaving is, at the moment, a joke for mages, Runes is viable in both solo and group situations, and TK or TP are both very strong solo choices. Your demesne will help a little in solo efforts if you can get it up and get the effects you want running, which depends on your guild as well. Of note, Druids and their melds work very differently to mages as far as interactions with tertiaries and the goals of the melder. (offhand, I'm told Dreamweaving is, while not the best, still viable for group work with druids.)

4 - There are other factors that come into play, such as racial weaknesses, but I'll let an actual combatant answer this.

5 - Depends on the org and area, but generally, groups just sit in the demesne and wait for the opponent's group to screw up, though there's also a lot of attempting to yank back and forth, or go for secondary targets to pull the defender(s) out.

6 - Generally these days, "Bob raided our planes/godrealm/garden last week, and we're hitting Bob's City/Commune back, who wants to fight?", but if you want to find a reason, you generally can.

7 - The Overhaul is going to change a LOT of things. The general gist of it is it's going to simplify the affliction system and then it will start playing with classes that relied on afflictions in a specific way for their kills, and then rebalancing overall to bring everyone to a presumably level playing field. Not the same starting points, as it's generally accepted that different classes within an archetype are going to have different flavours, and some may be better at <thing> than others.

NC

1 - If you build it, they will come. There are OOC clans, and some people do RP-Lite, but generally if you're in the game, you're in-character. It's understood that if an action is taken or a thing said in-game it was the character that did it or said it. You'll probably find a  cadre of comrades to roleplay with, but everyone from newbies to old hats is expected to be able to keep IC and OOC separated.

2 - Enchanting requires a heavier investment than the other tradeskills, by virtue of needing corresponding skills in other, related skills (High Magic and possibly either Elementalism or Cosmic depending on your class). Forging weapons takes a little bit of knowledge about the game's underpennings, and herbalism takes a very large time investment before it starts paying you back.

3 - Tailoring is a very solid tradeskill choice for any cloth-based classes (read: everyone not a warrior or tattooist), and Jewelry starts paying off at low skill (soon as you can make rings, you can make a killing with an enchanter friend).

4 - The population is clustered in certain places. I understand that right now it's Seren, Celest, and Mag, with Gaudi somewhere in between, and Glom and Hallifax more or less empty.

5 - Different strokes for different folks. Best money is in questing, as I understand it, with either selling the esteem from influencing or the bashing-gold taking second. Aetherspace is, if you can find a competent crew, the fastest experience gain with the longest potential run-times.

6 - Generally changing cities is frowned upon from an in-character perspective. Your org wants to have players it can rely on. That said, it's not uncommon, it just comes with consequences. Likewise, nobody bats an eyelash when a newbie does it. Guilds is less of an in-character issue, and some people change guilds like socks, and for reasons that run the gamut from mechanics to lore.

Bonus

1 - Bards, scholars, and Pilgrims. Ask your org how to gather them, and whenever you have down time, go grab some. Decent gold for newbies, probably the easiest karma in the game, and you can get from Newtons up into your early 50s with nothing but wanderers. 

2 - Some orgs have an easier time with their power quest than others. Of note, it is a cakewalk for new Aquamancers or Celestines to do theirs, but Magnagora's quest is dangerous until it isn't, and then easy xP after.

3 - 

Xenix

@Aerotan thank you, that is all great information!

Would you mind expanding on this for me please? 

Of note, Druids and their melds work very differently to mages as far as interactions with tertiaries and the goals of the melder. 

Elanorwen

Xenix said:

@Aerotan thank you, that is all great information!

Would you mind expanding on this for me please? 

Of note, Druids and their melds work very differently to mages as far as interactions with tertiaries and the goals of the melder. 

Both druid guilds have a mechanic that aims for a sap lock by building up allergies, using sap (An aeon-like effect that needs to be cleansed off) and then keeping enemies prone/otherwise disabled to prevent them from curing sap while either damaging directly or working toward their instant-kill which is thornrend, effectively a case of "drawn and quartered" enemy by ripping them in pieces.

Xenix

That sounds pretty cool. How do the mages work? Do the 4 types typically work the same just with a different flavor?

Tylwyth

um, sort of, they are themed around their element(fire/earth/water/air {and trees for druids}). 

I'm a Druid.

It more depends on their tertiary.

See, a lot of guild skills have an instakill attack near the higher end, if not exactly Trans. This is always conditional(usually they need to be at 1/3-1/2-2/3rds of their mana or health or ego, or you need to have several levels of effect{see thornrend} etc....).

And you can advance your skills differently so a mage with a lot in runes but not so much in their primary, might try a death vision, or whatever that's called. 

Hmm, there is a website http://wiki.lusternia.com/Skills with a skills page. look for yourself.

basicaly mages all start learning Elementalism, then specialise into their guild skill either a -mancy or a -chemantics. the standard Pyromancy for instance, involves making a meld. Basicaly bonding with an area called a demesne(fancy spelling of domain) which they create area effects for. All mages get  Staff and learn to tune it and get an ability that lets them unleash all there spells at once.

But the details are different. FIre mages are more damage oriented, while water and wind mages are a bit more healing/defensive.

Also note that it's not FIRE vs Water and Air verses Earth here, it's Fire(chaos) verse Air(order) and Water(holy) verse Earth(tainted).

In broad strokes they do work the same, but in practice there are important differences that would being a mage of the appropriate element to understand.

Take druids, the mages of the forest. Both druid guilds know basic nature magic and totems, but a Blacktalon(crow) druid is very different form a hartstone(stag) druid, as Mighty Crow lets us Blacktalons fly, talk to the dead, build a nest and do various tricks, pluck out eyes feast of the dead players, while Brother Stag lets his druids be bit more protected and stomp/stun on their foes. And he lets his druids be a bit more influencial.

But we can both bond to our totems and attune them to our enemies(so don't enter a forest you are enemied to).

Our druidries work slightly different as well. The stagdruids summon squirrels, we summon spiders etc....

Xenix

Thank you all for taking the time to answer! A lot of good information here.

@Tylwyth thanks for the link.

Enyalida

In general, the Druid is most focused on their demesne and using their primary skills to lock up a single opponent at a time, after hopefully splitting them from their group. Mages in general are using their tertiary skills (usually psionics) with their primary playing backup and hindering for a tertiary kill, like TK's heartburst or TP's mindburst.

The druid is fairly toothless without their demesne, or at least tree terrain. The mages lose a lot of power, but maintain a modicum of strength without their special terrains.

Aerotan

From the top of my head, the goals of the mage guilds are as follows: Geomancers need to keep their opponents hindered and bound up so that they can't flee. This enables them to close a chasm up around them. Aquamancers seek to keep an opponent from curing a specific affliction (chilled), while whittling his health to below half. This enables them to freeze their opponents solid. Aeromancers want to keep opponents from curing a different affliction that builds up higher and higher the more often the Aeromancer puts it on them. After a certain level of these the Aeromancer can cause a fatal shift in the air volume around their victim, choking them to death. Finally, Pyromancers seek to cause ever more severe burns and prevent their opponents from curing those burns. This allows the pyromancer to literally incinerate their victim.

Silvanus

1. Artifacts aren't really necessary, you can still succeed without them. If I were to suggest one artifact for anyone to get it, it's the Pig Nose so you get free scent. There is no combat artifact that you'll use more than the Nose.

2. You'll never really find true 1v1 combat, you'll always fight in groups. HOWEVER, you have to be able to survive long enough 1v1 till your allies come. Sometimes, you just can't win, as a Nihilist, it could be impossible for me to kill anyone with Trueheal.

3. Mages and Druids are amazing at 1v1, don't let anybody tell you different. No one is using TK to get a heartburst and no one has used TP to get a mindburst since you can't debate while in combat anymore. By just attacking everytime you recover your psionic balances, and upkeeping phantoms/claws, you can most likely damage out 90% of the population.

4. Mugwumps are amazing (for now). Some people like tankiness, but I don't see why. If you die in a group(99.9% of combat), your race's Con or racial weaknesses probably wouldn't have had an impact anyways, there was just too much hindering or too much damage to save you. However, that level 3 eq recovery can be the difference between you getting killed by Revan 99 times out of 100 (as a Viscanti Nihilist) versus him not being able to survive in 30 seconds (Mugwump Nihilist). Or the difference between a 2/3 kill/death ratio versus 6/1.5 kill/death ratio (200/300 k/d while a Viscanti, 630/141 since going Mugwump with some Dwarf Bard thrown in). Which is probably why it'll be getting nerfed (and should be).

5. "By this I mean, does a group just sit in a mages little power area and
try to pull the other group in while they are doing the same?" that is exactly how a lot of combat works. It can really really really really really really suck sometimes. I doubt it'll ever be changed. When it doesn't devolve into a rad/beckon fight, it could be pretty great, unfortunately that gets more and more rare.

6. Fights are pretty rare, nowadays, they happen only over village revolts and domoths.

7. Refrain from commenting.

Qistrel

Enyalida said:

The druid is fairly toothless without their demesne, or at least tree terrain. The mages lose a lot of power, but maintain a modicum of strength without their special terrains.

Which I like cause it links up to the lore pretty well, Kiakoda (who later became the Seal of Nature) was more powerful than any other Vernal when she was in a forest, but as soon as she ventured outside, she was pretty useless.

Enyalida

Druids are actually strongest 1v1, not in groups. That's just how the cookie crumbles, it's really strong if you can isolate one enemy for a long time and have space to lock them up, weak demesne otherwise. 

I'll echo Silvanus's comments about tankiness: What really matters is escape and crowd control abilities*, like dodge/timeslip, starleaper, empress, flight and so on. Mitigating damage is close to useless for combat, unless you're negating a flat and massive number, and only then if you are mitigating until you can use some escape ability. Don't be afraid to eat a damage malus, you're going to insta-die if targeted by damage anyways.

*There are strong arguments to be made that this is the reason guardians (and bardians - bards that act like guardians, with tarot) are some of the most popular classes: They have the best escape and control mechanics, hands down.

Qistrel

In the early days of Lusternia, nearly every caster was a mugwump. Then they got nerfed. Multiple times.

They did deserve it though. They were really good at bashing, pvp and influencing. Back in those days their bonus equilibrium applied to ego battles, so they could influence incredibly well despite their lack of charisma. These days they could maybe stand to get a small buff. :P

Elanorwen

Qistrel said:

In the early days of Lusternia, nearly every caster was a mugwump. Then they got nerfed. Multiple times.

They did deserve it though. They were really good at bashing, pvp and influencing. Back in those days their bonus equilibrium applied to ego battles, so they could influence incredibly well despite their lack of charisma. These days they could maybe stand to get a small buff. :P

No.

EDIT: That said, considering racial overhaul and everything, I am hoping that +eq/bal will go away altogether.