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Considering moving to Aetolia
Hello, all.
I'm an Achaea player that has grown complacent and I'm looking for a new creative outlet.
Given my experience with IRE games, I don't think I'll need too much hand-holding but want to find the best way to contribute to the game.
What orgs/factions could use a little help and bring a missing dynamic to Aetolia?
I'm an Achaea player that has grown complacent and I'm looking for a new creative outlet.
Given my experience with IRE games, I don't think I'll need too much hand-holding but want to find the best way to contribute to the game.
What orgs/factions could use a little help and bring a missing dynamic to Aetolia?
1
Comments
The best way to contribute is usually almost always in terms of group combat and, RP wise, creating new and innovative ways to motivate players and involve them. Right now, I'd say that Bloodloch needs the most assistance in this regard. Duiran, Enorian, and Spinesreach are all pretty active in terms of roleplay and personality, but Loch has been struggling these last few months (but not to the point of outright inactivity!). As far as what classes offer the most to Shadow in a group scenario, I'd likely attribute that to either Teradrim, Indorani, or a Sciomancer. However, guilded Sciomancers will soon be limited to Spinesreach for membership. Ergo, you'd have to multiclass as a Sciomancer if you went to Bloodloch.
I don't know what class you played in Achaea, so I can't offer a ton of comparisons or find a class that matches what you've previously played. However, I'll try to explain what those two classes do:
Teradrim... don't really have an Achaean equiv. They're a limb-based class, but also have some AoE functionality and utility via Desiccation and their sand. The reason why Teradrim are necessary for Shadow in a group scenario is that, if they don't have one, they have no way to counter a Shaman's overgrowth and this provides a massive disadvantage for Shadow. Same for Spirit if we don't have a Shaman when a Teradrim is present. Teradrim get their own personal golem, not unlike an Alchemist having a homonculus. Your golem levels up and has different abilities. Your primary focus in groups is damage, hindering opponents, and getting your sand passives up. Teradrim are also considered one of the best bashing classes in the game. I don't know how they are in 1v1 right now because they got downgraded a short bit ago for being a bit too powerful. No one is really using them.
Indorani is a solid 1v1 class as few people know how to appropriately handle the Adder Tarot. It's affliction based and theme-wise, like an Occultist but with Necromancy instead of Occultism. Domination still functions like it used to in Achaea and Tarot is your main means of affliction cards. Sun and Moon are your afflictions, Wheel is kind of a burst aff sort of deal, Eclipse masks your tarot throws every three throws. Your goal is to afflict your opponent and set them up for a Vivisection or afflict and temporarily lower their constitution and damage to death. The last person to use the class very well was Draiman, but he has retired. In groups, they use doppleganger, Hangedman on tumbling or prone targets, damage, etc.
Sciomancer is Mage. Mages will always be treasured for vibes, same as Achaea. Can't comment much on them in fights. You'd need someone like @Emir or @Eliadon to speak up on them. Spirit has mages too in the form of Ascendril, which @Eliadon plays.
I would say that the administrative staff has some solid vision and good changes are happening to better the game as a whole, and there's really no bad place to be at the moment. Better that you read over the lore and see what interests you.
Aetolia is still cliquey as hell, but I'm sure it's the same anywhere else in IRE and for the most part you can find success anywhere here if you try. Styles and approach may vary.
I do think that maybe Carnifex are unfortunately getting hit the hardest with some of the major changes atm or soon, and could appreciate a bit of love?
If you're a fighter, lifer side is pretty numerous currently. Good opportunity to become a glorious general of the dark legions! (But really.)
As far as guild/class, I still haven't decided. I was browsing a topic regarding combat styles for different classes and it seems a little unorganized. I don't suppose there is another resource that could give a vague rundown of group combat/1v1 techniques?
@Seir The way you detailed Teradrim is kinda what I'm looking for.
Spirit Classes:
Sentinel - Affliction-based. Use dhurives (think dual-edged glaives) and animals to deliver afflictions. Have some skills that can put them into "overdrive" mode when it comes to afflictions. However, widely considered to be a poor man's Templar right now. Can truelock. Instakills you if you're prone, have confusion, and two broken legs. Still currently being worked on the administration, apparently. Has traps for group functions, impale, bear pet for block, wrist-mounted crossbow for archery.
Luminary - Affliction-based. Has a slow start, but can simultaneously pressure both kelp and goldenseal aff routes. If they bury asthma, you'll get hellsighted and it's usually RIP after that. One of Spirit's top group classes right now because of Absolve, Angel Beckon, and the utility that Rites offer.
Templar - Varies, primarily semi-affliction based. Templar is hitting you fast, though not necessarily hard. The 1h blade route basically involves building up blade charge and afflicting you, eventually culminating into a condition-based instakill called Redemption. Offers utility via Auras, Block, Disembowel, good group damage depending on what weapons they can use. They're Aetolia's "weapon masters/jack of all trades". They have a blunt weapon route too that involves building up bruises on an enemy's limbs and then bursting them when your limbs hit a high amount of bruising. You primarily see the Redemption route, however, as it's generally more reliable.
Shaman - Semi-affliction based and the antithesis to Teradrim. Calls up Overgrowth in groups, has defensive utility for both themselves and their group, can yank opponents regardless of mass if they're both in overgrowthed rooms. Damage ramps up, especially if you get an affliction of theirs called Stormtouched, which comes from one of the fetishes that a Shaman can attach to their quarterstaff. They primarily use a lot of loki and they can see what affs they give you via Loki. They also dish out random mentals, but they don't really know what they're hitting you with. Goal is usually to damage someone out via an Omen into Stormtouched and then kill. Alternatively, they can go for a Reclamation which is a 6s unstoppable insta if you're at less than 50% health and have four focusable affs. Good all-around class.
Zealot - Monks without Kaido. They're kind of in an iffy place and have been for awhile. They have some great defensive utility from Illumination, such as Discharge. If they manage to hit you with Infernal Seal (a limb-based conditional), all of their punches and kicks will do extra fire damage to you while the Seal is active. Good for groups because Telepathy and Tekura throws.
Ascendril - Spirit mages. Have vibes. Can't comment on their 1v1 capabilities but @Eliadon can. Usually kill via burst damage. Can chain holos in group scenarios. Have Retardation.
Shadow Classes:
Praenomen (vampire) - Primarily affliction-based. Build up affs while usually pressuring both your health and mana, forcing you to focus on one or the other. Can truelock. Has good damage for groups, Lure (single target beckon. can be ranged if target doesn't have Clarity defense up). Can Annihilate a target to instakill if they're at 33% or less of max mana. Has different specializations. Insidiae is the most common because of the aff potential it currently has.
Teradrim - Limb-based and the antithesis of Shaman. Has bruises like a Templar does, tries to build up on those and limb damage, which can ramp up it's damage when you're prone. Golem offers utility. Bashing is good, class is inherently tanky. Has AoE/ranged capabilities when they spread sand. Can strip defenses like Mind Strip from afar with Sand Slice when opponents are standing in your sand. Just offers good damage and good group functionality. Highly recommend.
Carnifex - Primarily affliction-based. Becomes limb-based with 2h blunt. I can't comment on their current route too much as I'm still learning about it. @Toz or someone else can. Decent alpha damage. Uses two-handed cutting or blunt and has different abilities for both. Don't see the blunt route in 1v1. Can see it in groups due to utility and damage that it offers. Has Soul Substitute (Soulcage) so they're hard to kill unless someone with the Culling Blade artifact kills them and gets lucky OR Spirit has the Rite of Damnation up which makes all kills in the room final.
Cabalist - Currently getting revamped soon. Affliction-based right now. I'd wait until after the revamp. Reportedly getting a new guild as well. They're sort of like Occultists, just with Numerology instead of Tarot. Decent utility. Has Link in Numerology which combines their health and mana into one pool.
Indorani - Like Occultists, but with Necromancy instead of Occultism. Basically, what Achaea's Occultists once were a long time ago. I explained them above, so I'll skip them here.
Sciomancer - Shadow Mage. Fairly identical to Ascendril. Kills via burst damage. Has group utility via vibes, Cataclysm, etc. Talk to @Emir about them.
Neutral Tether Classes:
* These are classes available to folks on both tethers.
Syssin - Serpents on steroids. The current king of aff classes. They have archery, have a third balance called Shadow balance which can knock you off herb bal or make your curing attempts fail. Has Evade (though Evade has limitations in Aetolia unlike in Achaea). Can set up hypnosis from Phase with Ethergaze and snap you from phase. Can also Abduct someone into phase with them for a length of time to kill them apart from the group or split them up OR save an ally if they're quick about it. Can kill via burst damage based on how many affs you have. Garrote also does a lot of damage if prone. Spirit can learn Syssin, but the guild is located in Spinesreach.
Monk - What you'd expect from Achaea Monk. There's only a few differences here, but they're relatively minute so I won't go into them. Shadow can learn Monk, but the guild is located in Duiran.
Wayfarer - The new class that just came out. They're basically handaxe wielding barbarians and have no guild. They do decent damage, but are fragile. Group utility is also decent as they can make rooms indoors or mask your group while you're on the move and trying to rush. Fairly decent alpha damage. They're a limb-class, but use affliction pressure to build up on their limb pressure.
Shapeshifter - A sub-race class like Vampire. You can morph into Shapeshifter form while as any class and it'll transform you. They're a limb-pressure class but the literal definition of glass cannon (though Ursanthropes have it slightly better). Can absolutely shut one person down in a group with their bites. Has the easiest group insta if you've another coordinated Lycan with you. Has an AoE beckon howl. Don't have guilds any longer, they form packs with other -thropes of the same kind. No one uses them really in 1v1 as they've been in an odd place ever since the endgame revamp so long ago and don't pressure limbs as much as they used to. It's hard to say if the buffs have improved this as no one has used the class, primarily because they can't take damage at all without falling over. They can kill by getting a spleenrip on you, which is an uncurable aff that they'll give if they gain a jawlock. To get a jawlock, you need to be prone and have a mangled limb associated with the respective rip. Spleenrip makes clotting incredibly difficult and they have a burst bleed attack called Jugularclaw. Groinrip requires mangled leg and prone and will hinder your ability to dodge attacks via Avoidance. Throatrip is obtained via broken head and prone. If they get two out of the three rips on you, they can Devour you for an insta. Rips will fade on their own after a few minutes.
So there you go. A brief synopsis on all of the classes. Worth noting a few things: you can track afflictions a bit more easily in Aetolia by comparison to other classes as Aetolia has a skill (and an enchantment) that will tell you what things like Tree tattoo cured. Limb damage is cured by an application of restoration. This is called pre-resto. Limb classes generally have options on turning this against an opponent if they're not careful.
This is a really, really basic overview, but it should give you an idea. I'd highly recommend Teradrim to you as a beginner class. The guild has a ton of lore and I have it under good authority that @Fyrren is pretty awesome. The class itself offers a lot, is tanky, and is mandatory in groups if Spirit has a Shaman with them.
Edit: The Carnifex are also an awesome guild. @Toz and @Xenia are good people. @Toz is also familiar with Achaea and can help you get situated.
It's much less about straight up burst nowadays, and more about slowly whittling our targets down. Basically, we want to stick loneliness while frost/stonespiking - eventually the target will bleed enough that they run out of mana, then out of hp.
How to get there is a litttttttttttle bit complicated sometimes!
Emir's got the singularity cheese down pat, and it's glorious. ;O
In a deep, gravelly voice, Nenelos imparts to you, "// When I get Scio (eventually), would you be down to show me your general strategy with the class?"
You tell Nenelos, "//Buy +2 int and +2 magic potence, +2 con for additional tankiness while you're bashing them to death."
If you're super well off, just change all of those +2's to +3's
Forgot to mention to Nenelos to get +2 enhancement as well. And an arti shield.
Serious breakdown below!
Sciomancer is somewhat of a hybrid between damage and afflictions. Your initial damage and affliction rate are relatively slow, but they'll ramp up as the fight progresses. To supplement their slow start up, they have /amazing/ defensive capabilities versus classes that are usually fast from the get go and consistent with that speed, meaning they are superb at defending against traditional dsl/knight classes (Here, that means Sentinel, Syssin, Carnifex, and Templar) due to the ability Galeward (8% chance to resist a venom attack). They also don't wear any armour so they can reach a modest amount of dodge. Our reflections are a severely nerfed version of Achaea's Magi. They operate on a charge system and you only get 3. It takes 15s for each charge to recharge after using it, so you have to be very selective about when you use them. They also have cloudburst, great for annoyingly turtling endlessly in a flooded room and forcing people into singularity (holocaust) traps!
On the flip side, that's pretty much all they have defensively. Their active hinder is pretty weak and really only exists through an eq knock with stridulation passive, which requires the target to be undeaf when the vibe ticks.
@Eliadon nailed it about the offensive goal. It's all about health and mana attrition and obtaining it through smart affliction usage. If you end up picking Sciomancer (or Ascendril, the spirit version) I'll be willing to go into a bit more detail privately.
In team fights, you have the all mighty transfix and on demand access to loneliness through toning. Aetolia's version of cataclysm is also, I believe, the most powerful version in all of IRE! We can target people in adjacent AREAS with enough imbuers! You again, also have cloudburst! To go into more detail about that skill, it will push anyone in a flooded room out in a random direction. This is /amazing/ utility for breaking up groups camping on an objective.
Staffcast also applies a short debuff that increases the damage taken by that damage type for a few seconds. You have a bunch of Indorani and Cabalists on your team doing magic damage? Staffcast dissolution and help your team out!
I'm fairly certain I put in everything relevant for a basic summary of Sciomancer combat in there. Any other questions just ask here or PM me!
Avatar of Fyrren drawn by the amazing Sessizlik.
They are significantly different in the way they fit into the multiclassing structure. Praenomen is a full class that takes up a slot and needs to have lessons invested in all the skills, but is racial in the sense that it is restricted to people who have the vampire subrace. Shapeshifter does not take up a class slot, and only requires you to do a quest (I think) to pick one of the four forms. Putting lessons into the class is a little more complicated than the standard class, but as I understand it, two of the three skills won't start at the Inept rank, provided you've put lessons into the class skills from the class you morphed from.
Cute-Kelli by @Sessizlik.
I'm largely a PKer from another IRE, and did invest here. Level 2 strength, level 2 knuckles, and some defensive arties. Was curious if I made an oopsie with my class selection!
You see Zealots insta die at lessers all the time. You see monks tank 400 rounds and getting off 15 enfeebles and 20 banishes before they die.
I still say stick with it. Group combat is the name of the game these days, @Yeras and @Valingar still manage to use the class well, and you have the artifacts to fall back on in terms of damage. You'll probably be fine until they push out a revamp.
@Volcath: Audit is a skill that will tell you your total resistances to all damage types, among some other things. In this context, they're referring to your resistances displayed by Audit.
+-- Resistances ------------------------+-- Avoidance -------------------------+ Cutting | 49% 0% 33% 58% Dodge Chance | 13% 15% Blunt | 49% 0% 33% 58% Divert Chance | 28% 28% Magic | 25% 24% 0% 43% Divert Block | 9% 9% Fire | 35% 24% 0% 51% +-- Miscellaneous ---------------------+ Cold | 35% 24% 0% 51% Experience Bonus | 5% Electric | 35% 24% 0% 51% Crit. Chance | 47.23% Poison | 25% 24% 0% 43% Celerity | 5 r/ps Psychic | 15% 24% 0% 36% Health Drain | 0 Asphyxiation | 15% 24% 0% 36% Mana Drain | 0 Spirit | 15% 0% 0% 15% Willpower Drain | 0 Shadow | 25% 0% 0% 25% Endurance Drain | 0 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Resistances: Defences, Miniskills, Armour Avoidance: PvP, PvE +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+Edit: Color helps
https://ada-young.appspot.com/pastebin/2XFQdlIA
I'm from Lusternia and very interested in a transition here. I've heard very positive things about the RP environment here but I'm not sure how to get started. I have walked around my city (Bloodloch) some, but I never seem to find anyone, and when I do they appear to be afk or simply uninterested.
I'm also very spoiled by Lusternia's Planar skillset. Is there a quick way to get back to your city that isn't the newbie portals?
I'm also interested into learning the combat of this game, but I want to get somewhere I enjoy RPing at before I touch that. I have to ask, is there a system that people use here? I am very used to having my own prompt, but I'm not confident enough in my coding skills to make my own for cosmetic thing.
Avatar of Fyrren drawn by the amazing Sessizlik.
2) For curing, our built-in FirstAid system (HELP FIRSTAID) is pretty good, especially when just starting out. Some of our top combatants even use it, supplementing it with their own system to take advantage of its versatility. For your prompt, we have that built into Aetolia as well! Check out HELP CUSTOM PROMPT, it'll let you set your prompt up almost any way you want it.