Handful of Questions?

Riannon

Hello,

I haven't really played here since about a week after making Riannon, part of me kind of regrets upping and leaving but the times I played at back then kinda didn't do me much justice in being able to do much... With that, I'd been considering coming back and starting over; I reached out to a few people who I used to play with for some advice, but in the mean time while I wait to see when (if) they show up, I thought I'd try and ask here.

[ Note: Don't care about script/code 'needs' for anything. If I need something, I have zero problems in being able to make any of it myself. Don't let that be a factor, please! ]

1) I read about gold / exp changes in the past few months, would anyone care to fill me in? I remember when I played Riannon, it was kind of abysmal trying to earn anything. Made it kind of hard to bash a number of places due to afflictions + low gold income = buy credits for gold, or bash in lowbie areas for an extra long time. I kind of refused to accept handouts.

2) Piggybacking off #1, how is exp nowadays? The very first time I hit Tekal back in like ~2011 it was get 80 -> get artifacts from someone -> sit in Tiyen for like a week. Or just have someone constantly take you through Xaanhal (sp?). Kinda dull, I rather like variety!

3) How are most classes for bashing these days? What're the investment 'requirements' for them to actually be as good as they are? What ones can do 'perfectly fine' without investing 1000+ credits into it? I'll retire with a bit, but not quite that much. Which of these classes do 'okay' in PvP? It's not a huge draw for me, but it'll help if I decide to get into it down the line. I don't mind it not being OP, just... Usable... Coming from Lusternia, this particular part was kinda nightmarish.

4) How is PvP these days? What is there to do? Still just Foci, or have there been new additions?

5) Also not a huge deal, but it's worth asking... How are the factions these days? I think when I was dicking around on Riannon, Shadow was top dog by quite a fair margin. I rather enjoy classes from both sides.


Thanks in advance.

Toz

Riannon said:

1) I read about gold / exp changes in the past few months, would anyone care to fill me in? I remember when I played Riannon, it was kind of abysmal trying to earn anything. Made it kind of hard to bash a number of places due to afflictions + low gold income = buy credits for gold, or bash in lowbie areas for an extra long time. I kind of refused to accept handouts.

Gold and exp changes are good. Gold is achievable IG once you get past a certain level, and before that you won't spend much on curatives. Anyone who tells you it's hard to bash is doing it wrong or doesn't have friends - someone handed my alt a mint and 2 globes not knowing who I was and I was able to go from level 82 to 100 in like 2 days, plus make 100k gold.

2) Piggybacking off #1, how is exp nowadays? The very first time I hit Tekal back in like ~2011 it was get 80 -> get artifacts from someone -> sit in Tiyen for like a week. Or just have someone constantly take you through Xaanhal (sp?). Kinda dull, I rather like variety!
It's hilarious now. Triple xp for lesser pk, assist xp in lessers/orrery, just join a pk group and mash your basher and you help your team + get mad levels. Globes are also amazing if you can get some, and bashing in general is a little dull but there are lots of areas now, to bash.

3) How are most classes for bashing these days? What're the investment 'requirements' for them to actually be as good as they are? What ones can do 'perfectly fine' without investing 1000+ credits into it? I'll retire with a bit, but not quite that much. Which of these classes do 'okay' in PvP? It's not a huge draw for me, but it'll help if I decide to get into it down the line. I don't mind it not being OP, just... Usable... Coming from Lusternia, this particular part was kinda nightmarish.
Don't pick any class that is EQ based unless you want a +eq crown. Otherwise, all classes are viable for both bashing and pk. Zealot is a little weird because monk is just...better Zealot, but Zealot is fine, even if Tekura is one of the more ehhh classes for bashing.

4) How is PvP these days? What is there to do? Still just Foci, or have there been new additions?
War system dropped today, everyone's dead.

5) Also not a huge deal, but it's worth asking... How are the factions these days? I think when I was dicking around on Riannon, Shadow was top dog by quite a fair margin. I rather enjoy classes from both sides.

It's about an even split now, IMO.

Riannon

@Toz Well that was quick response.
Regarding #1/#2 I maybe phrased that a little wrongly. It's not so much that it was hard, it's just that there were very few places to bash that were worthwhile.

I'm not sure what globes are. And getting to Tekal isn't a huge deal to me; I'd get there eventually, one way or another. The 'breaker' for me is if one method is significantly better than the other, to the point that it's "lol why do that, when you can do this and get there in 1/10th the time?" - influencing was basically this in Lusternia, and it kinda killed it being interesting to me. Especially since it was 100x better for making gold as well, than bashing/questing was.

#3 That sounds about right for how Achaea/Imperian was, when I played there for a bit. They seemed kinda... Balanced around having it. If you dind't have it, well glhf vs anyone remotely competent. I find bashing kind of relaxing, despite others seemingly hating it.. I just want some variation in places to bash, without that 'variation' involving going to places that suck. >.> (hence the tiyen/xaanhal or bust comment).

And yeah, never been a huge fan of monk


Oh! One question I forgot to ask... Can I get a run down on Wayfarer? I think that came out around the time I created (or stopped playing? I forget...) Riannon, and didn't get the chance to look into it much.

Toz

Wayfarer is pretty interesting, it's a hybrid class. To maximize it, you need to pressure salve AND herb affs, but plenty get by just doing one or the other. It does decent damage in groups too, and has some really niche group pk skills. The bashing is a little squishy at first because leather armor, but you can axe chop+wield a shield or go full-on axe slinger and dual wield axes that you throw at them. It gets a decent audit once you get access to Phalanx though, which is a battle chant you can use to up your physical audit.

Globes are a thing you can use to create your own bashing mobs, and you just sit there draining the globe and killing the mob over and over until you run out of charges. Decent gold drops, too.

Riannon

I see. And where are these globes from? :O

Toz

Riannon said:

I see. And where are these globes from? :O

They're drops from chests/bags/etc.

Riannon

Oh lame.

Last question/s (possibly) for now... Think you could elaborate on the wayfarer points a bit? I won't be able to login and check the skills myself for a few hours, if I decide to...

1) What are their 'niche' skills?
2) What kinda affs do they go for? Is it the generic limb breaks / paralysis + x stuff, or do they have cool things to play with?
3) When you say they're squishy... How squishy exactly are we talking? Like monk but without transmute/regeneration, etc? Worse? Better?
4) I saw their fury thing at least, can you explain how that works? I assume it's just by attacking things, you build fury... If that's the case, do they generate enough to keep it permanently up while bashing? or...
5) Double axes sounds fun, I'm guessing single+shield has a noticeably lower dps output than double axes?

Riannon

@Toz I might as well ask here... CHELP NOVICES, even, states that both axes can be used simultaneously... Is there some skill I need before I can use both? If I try axe chop target::axe lob target, it says I gotta recover balance on the second hit... Same for basically every combination of attacks I could use.
I think I'm doing something wrong... Or missing something, none of the ABs are particularly helpful in that regard (unless I'm just blind, which I very well could be)

Toz

@Zarni - he's the WF guy, I don't play it enough to do it justice!

1) Their niche skills are being able to pressure salve into a kill AND affs into kill AND damage into a kill. They have a lot of routes that go together- look at slaughter, embed axe, lob, execute and dropstrike.

2) They have a few affs that help push their kill conditions - exhausted to nerf the target's dodge % and ringing_ears to make healing undeaf harder (to stick sensi easier). Also muddled, to block focus.

3) I can get a decent physical audit (like normal class tier) but it requires using phalanx battlechant to do so - without, they're about monk tier, maybe a little better, yeah. And they only have 1 active aff cure so they're MAJORLY fragile.

4) Fury you build by hitting players and use it on shouting at them. It's sort of a rage resource that is designed to go up and down as you fight - you can use Dauntless (I think) to get your fury naturally regenning up to 50% at the cost of a nerfed sip.

As for weapons, you don't get an axe back as soon as you throw it. Has a return time. So you can AXE LOB TARGET, then the next time AXE LOB TARGET, and wait to catch the first axe and do it again. Or, more common, AXE LOB TARGET, AXE CHOP TARGET, catch the first axe and start over. Or, if you're str, AXE CHOP TARGET while using a shield. Also once you get far enough in the class you can AXE SLAUGHTER TARGET to throw both axes, but you have to wait for them to come back and you don't have a weapon for parrying etc. while they're gone.

The axe mechanic is really the interesting part of the class IMO. You can cash in both axes on lobs for fast affing if you want/need, but then there's a built-in cooldown before you get them back. Other attacks that are slower line up differently/better with the offense, meaning you can throw->melee->throw->melee pretty regularly if you go that route.