How are race hats handled RP-wise?

Kio

I don't really want to switch guilds, but being a Wyrdenwood is really starting to get depressing.  Unfortunately, the other races I enjoy are pretty horrible for demesne users.  Hence the question!

Are race hats considered just a crafty illusion, or do people overlook them and consider the person wearing them to actually be that race?  I ask because I'd like to RP as the race who's hat I'm wearing, but don't want to be considered silly if that's not how it works.

Everiine

I consider them to be crafty illusions, and that the person's race under the hat is their true race. It's an interesting RP path to take, though--a Wyrdenwood who so desperately wants to be [x] that he wears the hat and pretends to be [x] at all times.

Thul

Pretty sure there isn't a Wyrden/Wildewood hat for sale, if that's what you were hoping for. Not yet, anyway. So if you wanted to keep being Mister Tree but the skillset is just killing you... well. >_> Dunno what to say.

Might just need to bug envoys a bit. Or a lot.

Kio

That would be interesting! However, I LOVE the race part of Wyrdenwood... just not the mechanics

I'm assuming that's the general consensus of the Basin?

Xenthos

They are an illusion, but (especially if you customize it to look like something else) there's no real way for anyone to know what the heck you are.  So you might as well be what the hat makes you.

PS: Why is Wyrdenwood depressing?  You've seemed to be enjoying it.

Nihta

I could really see a race hat played as any way you choose to. I just have a race hat so I don't have to change my description for my changeling cameo =P.

Marcella

I think race hats should absolutely make you kind of be the race who you're wearing it as, at least for RP! Since it has no mechanical benefits, the only use for it is to allow me to roleplay as what race I want to be, even though mechanics wouldn't allow me to be as effective as I am if I was the one I wanted to be. That was a runon sentence, so I'll just explain it as: I want to RP as an Orclach in the ur'Guard, but Aslaran is 10000000% better for being an axelord, so i'm an aslaran with a racehat and if anyone calls me an aslaran I'm going to kill them.

Kio

Xenthos said:

They are an illusion, but (especially if you customize it to look like something else) there's no real way for anyone to know what the heck you are.  So you might as well be what the hat makes you.

PS: Why is Wyrdenwood depressing?  You've seemed to be enjoying it.

I have been!  I'm just incredibly disheartened by the fact that 1v1, there's quite literally nothing I can do.  I do like being able to be effective in groups with some pretty decent hindering with... shieldstun.  But other than that, it's really rough.  Dropping a bomb every now and again is pretty wasteful, as the little bombs don't do much more than what a basic attack is doing with a bonus affliction that really does nothing (paralysis being the best one).  Creeping is pretty decent, as I can be sure to have three of the afflictions on one target to do decent damage and a nice stun, but afterwards, I either spend a long time to put leaves back up and regen power or just start abusing shieldstun or Noose (which is incredibly underwhelming damage and entanglement and a fused rune).

Speaking of Runes, superslinging is something I don't feel comfortable doing, as it means I can't be wielding either my vine or my shield.  I'm not removing my shield, and removing my vine is proving to be more trouble than it's worth.  Perhaps practice will help.  However, the current incarnation is very... clunky, at best.

For example, I can fuse runes into my vine, but only 1-5 at once.  After fusing, no more can be added until all are expelled or wiped.  Fusing takes a decent equilibrium, so it cannot be done reactively during combat like envenoming.  However, without fusing, I have no way to sling into adjacent rooms without fusing and using lash or noose.  Superslinging isn't useful for me in 1v1, unless I try to stack bleeding and drain mana.  However, the numbers just aren't there to do that.  

Ecology might be manageable 1v1 against lower-health targets, but I don't really care for it.  Dreamweaving will only compound the power cost of the spec itself while not attributing much at all to a 1v1 setting.

I know most combat takes place in groups, and I admit that I have a decent group presence.  However, I can have just as good a group presence with the demesne spec, while being able to compete 1v1.  All in all, the class mechanics itself just has me really down.  I'm finding myself sitting around and biding my time until a group fight crops up, and then I start really enjoying it.  Like I've said, I really enjoy RP-ing as a Wyrdenwood... I just want to have some sort of viability on my own

Every time I look at the other *chemantic skills (and Geochemantics just coming out only compounds it a bit), I just get even more frustrated.  If the *chemantic skills are suppose to give us a means of fighting without a demesne, it is... if you have Psionics

Xenthos

The Wyrdenwood special report just opened up, so, I would heavily suggest you speak with your Envoy!

Eldanien

Marcella said:

I think race hats should absolutely make you kind of be the race who you're wearing it as, at least for RP!

I agree, should be.  But aren't, according to the admin.

Kio

Thul said:

Pretty sure there isn't a Wyrden/Wildewood hat for sale, if that's what you were hoping for. Not yet, anyway. So if you wanted to keep being Mister Tree but the skillset is just killing you... well. >_> Dunno what to say.

Might just need to bug envoys a bit. Or a lot.

(Meant to click quote, not answer, heh)

I always feel dumb when I try to think of things to help the skillset.  I'm still really new to combat and always feel like my ideas aren't fully-formed.  Nor do I have any grasp on what/how/when to approach my/an envoy about it.  Should I message him?  Pounce on him when he logs in via tells?  I'd feel really guilty if he logs in to eighteen million messages from me saying "HEY LET'S LOOK AT THIS THING AND TRY TO CHANGE IT," especially if he already has ideas for the when the special report opens up.  It's kinda rough with no one of high caliber using the skill actively to try to figure out strategies (sorry Enya and Vadi if you are and I just haven't seen you - which might very well be the case!).

Kio

Xenthos said:

The Wyrdenwood special report just opened up, so, I would heavily suggest you speak with your Envoy!

Can it be seen be non-envoys?

Xenthos

I'd put it all together in 1 letter, and leave him a message saying you sent it.

You don't really need to work on the combat part specifically.  Put together your issues-- such as the sling part of it-- and he can try to come up with balanced solutions and approaches.

PS: No pouncing on people when they log on via tells.

Lavinya

There IS a mechanical benefit to the hat - you get to have the stats of the race you want AND still get to rp as whatever you want. For all intents and purposes, you are tricking everyone to believe you are something you aren't. In an ideal world each race would have good stats. Everyone tends to RP them differently. If Lavinya knows you are a different race under your hat, she will treat you as that race (and think you are probably ashamed of it). There is no set rule as to how to RP it.

Elanorwen

I personally RP it as the way it is. I'm a faeling and you don't get to call me otherwise... or see me otherwise. I might customize the hat at some point in the future, but eh... not much of a point at present. If you want to look specifically for a hat in the wall of text you see when you look at me, you still don't get to know what I am underneath.

@Lavinya - that is not a mechanical benefit, that is an RP benefit. The hat itself doesn't give you improved stats or anything else, it just allows you to RP as the race you want to be. I'd personally be even more happy if the race hat also came with the ability to use that specific race's emotes, but eh... I guess one can't have everything.

Eldanien

Lavinya said:

There IS a mechanical benefit to the hat - you get to have the stats of the race you want AND still get to rp as whatever you want. For all intents and purposes, you are tricking everyone to believe you are something you aren't. In an ideal world each race would have good stats. Everyone tends to RP them differently. If Lavinya knows you are a different race under your hat, she will treat you as that race (and think you are probably ashamed of it). There is no set rule as to how to RP it.

Race hats don't affect RWHO.  I thought it was a bug and bugged it.  I was told by the admins they aren't supposed to affect RWHO, because you are not the race your race hat makes you look like.

In other words, people who RP as the race the hats make them appear to be are in-character delusional.  Which is OK, if that's what you're going for.  But it's akin to changing your description text and claiming to be a different race.

edit: So I agree, as it stands now, race hats are purely illusion.  I just happen to wish otherwise.

Xenthos

In other words: Perfectly normal, if you live in Glomdoring.