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Regarding classes, crafting, shops
Hello there,
I used to play another IRE game (Achaea) back around 1999-2005. Recently got nostalgic, logged into my character. Nothing was the same (not even my class), but it felt familiar enough that it was too weird for me -- like waking up next to a spouse who looked the same but had a different personality. Also, nobody I knew back then is still playing so I decided a clean start elsewhere would be better.
I have a few questions, thank you so much for your help.
1. Classes - I know this is subjective, but I was hoping to get a bit more information. I am interested in a few classes, namely Shaman, Luminary, and Monk. I don't like to PvP and likely won't ever take part in it if I can help it (which sucks in IRE games because that means half or more of your skills are basically useless, heh), so this is more about bashing and flavor.
Thank you again!
I used to play another IRE game (Achaea) back around 1999-2005. Recently got nostalgic, logged into my character. Nothing was the same (not even my class), but it felt familiar enough that it was too weird for me -- like waking up next to a spouse who looked the same but had a different personality. Also, nobody I knew back then is still playing so I decided a clean start elsewhere would be better.
I have a few questions, thank you so much for your help.
1. Classes - I know this is subjective, but I was hoping to get a bit more information. I am interested in a few classes, namely Shaman, Luminary, and Monk. I don't like to PvP and likely won't ever take part in it if I can help it (which sucks in IRE games because that means half or more of your skills are basically useless, heh), so this is more about bashing and flavor.
- I know all classes can get to 100+ or whatever level, but out of Shaman, Luminary, and Monk, which would be the most enjoyable / least tedious?
- Is there a class that people like to "have around", just in general (whether they're one of the three I mentioned, or any other class)? I've always liked playing utility classes in MMORPGs ... being useful is nice, whether for buffs/debuffs/heals.
- If I were to get attacked, which class would give me a better chance to run away like a chicken and live to cry another day?
- How many lessons does it take now to tri-trans all class skills? Also, what other skillsets do you need for bashing, and should they be transcendent too?
- The Shaman, Luminary, and Monk -- do any of them need artefacts? Even if you're not into PvP?
- Do people still buy crafted items, or does everyone already have their own crafting skills so they could just make their own stuff without needing to buy things from someone else?
- I'm assuming that you can basically learn all crafting skills you want? (Because $$$ for the credits.) I thought I'd ask anyway, just in case.
- Level with me: If we don't consider "RP flavor", which crafting skills are basically useless/worthless?
- Is the system the same here in Aetolia (that is, extremely limited places, extremely expensive, good luck ever getting your hands on one)? When I was snooping around all the IRE games trying to find one that would fill the Achaea gap, I read something about aethershops that existed in Lusternia that were different from normal shops and that it didn't need the humungous credit outlay at the start, so I was curious about Aetolia.
- If you don't have a shop, are you doomed with regards to being able to sell things to people?
Thank you again!
0
Comments
That said, let's move on to your questions.
Classes
1a. Out of Shaman, Luminary, Monk.... I would say that shaman is probably the best for PVE, but Luminary comes in very very close. Shaman and luminary both have various passive healing abilities, but I do believe that Shaman has more. Monk is kind of squishy and you'll die a lot using them in PVE as they essentially have no audit to most attack types.
1b. I'm not sure if there's a specific class that everyone likes having around. It's all variant on whats going on and if you're not interested in PVP, then it just boils down to what you want to play.
1c. If you were to get attacked, I would think Luminary would be best because you can use Lightform to get away and most tend to not carry around eye sigils to bring you out, nor cubes to stop you from escaping again. Shamans have escape skills as well, but I'm not remembering what they are called at the moment.
1d. It takes about 1736 lessons per main skill, and you have 3 class skills. So that's 5208 lessons or 868 credits. Credits are easy to obtain in the game via gold and city credit sales. And you'll want to trans all your mini skills (694 lessons *7 miniskills) as they'll provide a very useful audit towards damage types.
1e. For PVE, you don't really need any artifacts. They'll just help you be tanky more.
Crafting
2a. Yes and yes. Loads of people still buy crafted items, but loads of people also have their own crafting skills. It all boils down to RP really on whether or not someone comes up to someone else to craft something.
2b. I'm not a crafter, so I'm not sure on this.
2c. If you're not considering RP flavor, all crafting skills are basically useless because there's so many crafters that you could drop a pin and it would land on someone who crafts. Not to mention the shops are absolutely flooded with various types of clothes, jewelry, metallurgy, etc that you're never really at a loss for anything unless you have something very specific in mind. Most times, crafters get crafting simply for RP flavor.
Shops
3a. Aetolia has lots of shops through the 4 cities and even has shop sales in the neutral city of Esterport where you can bid on them... but these shops tend to get very expensive. That said, most shops tend to be owned by a few individuals for guilds, orders, or other organizations. But if you're nice, someone might be willing to share the shop with you and let you get your profits from sold items.
3b. If you don't have a shop, you can always sell your services over the Market channel. I've seen some really good work come from freelance people who don't own a shop.
Classes:
Getting to 100 - most people just find friends to help bash them up in a couple weeks anyway. If not a couple days. It is super easy here.
Utility classes: this will vary somewhat on what you enjoy rping, but Syssin is probably the number one utility class. Monk and Zealout have some cool stuff too, but I think Syssin tops the ranks.
Syssin is also one of the most slippery classes by intentional design.
Crafting:
People buy crafted items all the time from shops. Aot of folks either don't have the crafting skills or don't want to deal with the tedium of designing things even if they do
Have the skills.
You can get every crafting skill and talent, but you can only choose ONE mercantile skill. Of those options, Forging is probably the most profitable and demanded.
The crafting skills people care LEAST about buying random goods from are probably a lot of the talents. The tradeskill crafting skills are all fairly well used items, but the talent skills are almost completely RP flavour. Floristry papercrafting and fumology are probably the most profitable exceptions to that rule.
Shops
Depends on your luck. Shops can go for pretty cheap if no one if interested in buying one in a city at the time the shop happens to come available, but they can also be pretty dang pricy. They are often sold for gold and not credits. Esterport, the neutral city, has two types of shops, some permanent and some with cyclical leases. The permanent ones require the player to sell it to you or for the player to stop paying their taxes and the shop to get reclaimed by the city for resale. The leased shops become available automatically after a set period of time, giving the best opportunity to get into the shop keeping game. These are sold in a week long auction for gold
Without a shop, it is certainly harder to hock large quantities of wares, however, if you advertise you skills on the market channel regularly and have an ad you renew, you will probably get a lot of custom orders. People love making custom orders.
I've found woodcrafting and forging the most useful in general.
Talents are generally only useful for flavour. All other crafting and mercantile skills are useful in a practical sense since they make you independent.
Re: shops, most orgs have a guild or city shop they will probably let you stock if you don't want to freelance.
Edit: Zaila snuck in while I was typing on my phone, pls nerf.
Edit: miha put the crafting skills comments so much clearer than I did, thank you!
Rhyot got it -mostly- right. Monks do have a fairly crap audit and are pretty squishy. However we make up for it in other ways through Transmute and Numbness. I've had no issues over the years bashing as purely monk, and only ever have issues when I switch to another class and suddenly don't have the blanket cover of Numbness or Transmute that takes my 5k healthpool on average and boosts it to around 9k+
Anyone can craft if they purchase a craft skill, and you can buy as many of them as you want. I literally have every skill that allows you to make custom designs. There is never a shortage of people looking for someone to make something custom for them, and if you're good, business is easy to come by. Tailoring is usually the most sought after craft skill, followed by jewelry. For functionality, woodcraft is pretty good. If there's one craft skill I'd warn beginners away from, it'd be furniture - comm cost is expensive, and there's not as huge of a demand for it as the others.
Mercantile skills you can only select one of. But which one is best depends on what you have the patience/capital for. Commodities for forging are the most expensive, and you need a forging hammer artifact, but the profit margins are really high. Herbalism and Apothecary require time investment for harvesting ingredients, but require access to casks for making bank off of, but you can sell product quickly.
As far as shops go: depending on where you want one, it's not terribly expensive or difficult to obtain. Shops within cities tend to go for cheap (200k-300k gold at most), and tend to pop up more often. Esterport shops are extremely sought after because they're so lucrative and are on neutral territory, but are extremely expensive. I've yet to see an Esterport shop sell or go for auction for less than 1 million gold. There's also a thing in Esterport called lease shops where the ownership goes up for grabs every few RL months, and anyone can bid. These tend to go for 100k and under, and you pay no taxes for the entire time you own it. It allows for new people to get a chance at owning an Esterport shop if they really want one, but no one wants to give up their permanent shop.
I'm really grateful for all the information about classes & skills. There's a lot of food for thought and I am really excited about finally making a decision about class and getting my character fleshed out.
Trying not to get too ahead of myself, though. I think maybe it's because I had tons of stuff transcendent in Achaea so starting over is a bit painful. I'm hoping to make the right choices and just get enthralled again. I guess I should take a look at HELP RETIREMENT if I do fall in love -- at least I'll get something out of my Achaean besides sadness and memories.