Sciomancer: I was born in Retardation, molded by it.

edited June 2013 in Sparring Grounds
So I've been playing Sciomancer for a while, and came to the conclusion that this class has no offense at all. Then I put down retardation and boy was I surprised. 
Why would you play this class?
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You are the pillar of team fighting. As long as you're up, your team has a chance, with great room damage, enemy specific attacks, and healing of your entire team. You can make or break a teamfight. In singular combat, you have transfix and voidgaze, one of the highest DPS potential in this game. If that don't leave the room, you will kill them without fail.

 With a singular vibe, you can destroy an entire team, including your own. Tired of that Calipso strutting her stuff. Knock her back down to earth by embed retardation as she's being hit by the enemy team. Sit back and watch both teams come to a stand still, because of you. Then you can sit back and kill that little... 
Equipment
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Basic Ends
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You'll need a tower shield, weapon belt, fast morning star, fast dagger, pestilence ring, and your void staff

Learning:
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You should transcend both Crystalism and Sciomancy and get weaponry up to shatter. 

Recommended Artifacts:
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--Amulet of Protection, though not a huge boost in your defense, it is nice
--Intelligence boon, a huge boon to your offensive game
--Magic Potence, not a major one, but it will help out if you stormhammer or staffcast, hunting makes a big difference
--Equilibrium Crown, all around almost required for some combinations
--Enhancement, gives you enough health to tank some more singularities
--Robes of the Magi, not a needed but it will prevent your mana using abilities from destroying you against Luminaries/Vampires(these are also the only classes you use replicate against, which has the highest mana cost)
--Mana sip(You'll be going through a lot of it, and I do mean A LOT of it)
--Bola/Artifact Web These are useful as secondary versions of hindering. These work wonders in retardation. 
--Torc of Telepathy, very fast and usable as long as you're on balance and equilirium. You can paralysis lock somoene in retardation with this if you get behind. 

Pros of this Class
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High AOE damage
High Single Target Damage
High Crowd Control
Galeward, negates venoms, this class is Syssin proof. 
High passive offense, even if you're getting messed up, you can prevent yourself from being beheaded/brainsmashed some of the time.
Relatively diverse set of skills
Relatively high physical armor


Cons
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Our highest damage and debilitating vibe affects us too
Too diverse, we have too many half hearted skills that by themselves don't get anything done and have no combo ability or follow up
High equilibrium times, we're a relatively slow class
No high controlled affliction rate
Limited mobility
Highly channel reliant

Important skills:
Crystalism: 
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All of it, besides cataclysm, warmth, reverberation. 

Retardation is your most important vibe, it will make your vibes more effective and can outright break the system of some people. 

Dampen: This skill is actually really useful when fighting enemy mages, quickly dampen their plague, disorientation, lullaby, dissonance, and creeps. Since failing to use dampen doesn't use anything, you can literally make one alias that dampens all these and just spam it till you get all failures. 

Sciomancy: 
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Replicate: To be used IF and only if you have robes of the magi. This lets you copy spells the problem with the skill is, it uses up a ton of mana and is only usable against classes with mana instant kills. You'll need minimum of robes of the magi, +3 int +enhancement and +mana sip are really required to use this skill.

Transfix: You will be using this as your only active form of disable.

Stormhammer: Do not use this ability, after registering damage values with what this skill actually does. The damage output of stormhammer is far far too low to be of any good. Sitting only like 200 damage higher than staffcast at FAR HIGHER equilibrium costs the return is not worth it at all.

Staffcasting: As a sciomancer you'll need to understand damage types because you have 4 different types. To make a huge rant about why they gave you so many options really short, lightning deals the most damage unless they're a vampire then use fire. 

Fluxus: If you're going for brands, this skill is your favorite.

Quake: This skill could not be called anything but trolling. useful for trolling entire enemy teams who are unprepared. If you are not a road or in a flooded room, you can use it to send the entire enemy team flying out the room if they are not properly prepared. Use this frequently to disrupt enemy forces and plant your vibes. Then run for your life. If you dropped your vibes on an objective good job, you're a giant unicorn. 

Singularity: You'll need to balance out the damage it does to you with the damage it'll do to them, IF they stand in the room for it. Remember, people expect you to leave the room BEFORE they go off. By balancing out the damage it does to you, you will not only take them by surprise BUT you will be closer to killing them. 

Shadeling: This little guy can be used to strip them of their caloric a second before you hit them with singularities, 10% higher damage without a credit invest, yes plz.

Voidgaze: This is one of your highest means of damage and only usable on transfixed foes. If you spam this at someone, they will be in trouble. With the addition of hitting them with shadowbrand, you'll also have a very nice brand start. As they'll be more incline to hit the defensive when they get untransfixed. 

Erode: useful for stripping their shield, one of the fastest ways to do it with wise + crown bringing it down to 1.57 seconds, or roughly herb balance. 

Bloodleech: This is a way of draining afflictions from yourself quickly. Be careful, as it means you're not attacking them and pretty much laying it out you're having a problem with them. use it to trick them into going on the offense, specifically against classes with many passives. 

Meteoswarm: Use this skill in teamfights for AOE goodness. The fact it hits everyone on your enemy list means you can use this with other sciomancers to secure amazingly easy AOE damage. This is the ONLY class with a good form of AOE active damage.

Strat Layout: In this section I will outline the methods or basic principal of killing someone in a one on one. Before the line of ~~~ is with retardation, after it is without retardation.
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Beheading:
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With the negative effects of retardation it is extremely important you get off the first hit in this method of fighting someone. You'll want to go in with your dagger, hopefully with 180ish speed on it. Remember that thrown weapons go through rebounding and put returning on(trans weaponry required for this route). You're going to load them up with paralysis and stupidity to slow down their curing. When they're stuck with paralysis and stupidity, start a venomlockwith throwing anorexia then slickness then asthma. Following this immediately with a double leg shatter. Follow this IMMEDIATLY with a double leg shatter. You'll want to find the balance of a morning star fast enough that when you regain balance you can enter the next one without having to worry about the next one cancelling the first one, when retardation is factored in.This will give them 4-7 seconds of salve balance thanks to the slow down on retardation and will let you get a relatively easy brainsmash.
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To get a behead, you'll need to shatter spam the opponents limb in your full vibes minus retardation to get them behind on their curing. You have no real means to actively hinder them, besides web and a luck transfix. Getting to know your vibes and you can transfix at the same time they get by plague and dissonance, you'll be good. The transfix will slow them down enough that you can get most of the brainsmash off. You'll most likely not get to finish it. The best way to do this is to work by shattering their arms first. That will stop most offenses. Once you got their arms shattered then go to their legs, remember to throw in an arm shatter and after you shatter a leg. That way you keep their offense slow and their parrying down. With 2 leg shatters and an arm shatter, you're set for the brainsmash/behead.


Damage:
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The best way to do this is with the help of a singular singularity and the use of voidgazes to soften them up for staffcasts. After the damage nerf you're going to be shooting blanks in terms of voidgaze damage but it can still be used to force them to use sip+moss balance to soften them up for the singularity and staffcast spam to follow it. Through the use of voidgazing you'll be able to do some decent damage and when the singularity pops, switch over to staffcasting. That will secure you the kill. If targets have low health(below 5k), then drop a singularity and start staffcasting. Sometimes 2 singularities are required if the target is specificly tanky to either your lightning or cold damage. Remember the trick to using singularities is not to drop as many as possible in the room and run out, it's to drop as many as you can safely tank and then damage them down. Running out of the room is a signal that the stuff is about to go off, and not always feasible to do. Another thing to remember is who you're fighting and how much damage they do. If their damage output could be lethal to you, you'll most likely want to find another way to tackle them.  
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Without retardation there's only one way to get a damage kill in the room, and this is the combo. You'll want to start with casting as many singularities as you can take WITHOUT dying instantly or risking yourself. For me this is 2 singularities as wise with +1 con from amulet and +1 con blessing, then enchantment from the other amulet. You'll need to time them based on your damaging ability. For me, 15 seconds on the first singularity, then 10 seconds on the next. It gives me enough time to hit them enough, to usually get the kill with the singularities or shortly after. Try to shadeling freeze them right BEFORE the singularities go off. This will increase the damage they take from them by roughly 10%. Remember full vibes will also deal damage to them and hinder them. Though small amounts and very briefly. 


Brand:
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In order to get this off, you need to get three brands off on the person. The first brand you put on will last 2 and a half minutes, the second one will last a minute and a half, and the third will last a minute. Once you have the third on them, you can FLUXUS them to instantly kill them. This sounds like the best route, however, in order to get a brand off on MOST people you will need to find a way to hinder them. This can be as easy as breaking an arm against the Carnifex class or having to find a way to transfix them. In retardation you have a plethora of ways to do this, however make sure it's a target that when they're proned you can get the ability off on them. People that paralyze you constantly are people you WILL NOT be able to use this ability on if they're not hindered. As you need to channel it for four seconds. Once you have them hindered or they're not a threat to you hinder wise, go to town on the branding and fluxus. In retardation this is almost as easy to pull off as damage. Be ware, you will almost never get this skill off against:1 vampires, 2 good monks, and 3 people with the torch of telepathy. 
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Well now you've done it. You've done lost your retardation. How do you brand without retardation? Pretty much the same as you would without it. Don't be afraid to leave the room, as this tactic can literally get yourself killed by high affliction or damage reliant classes. This isn't an if and/or statement. It will. You need to either catch them by surprise by branding early or watch their attack routine, when you're confident two or three attacks in a row won't be hindering afflictions use it then. leave the room, and heal up. Then back in and look for the gap again. Reading their offense, is a major part of this plan. You need to adapt to them, sink into their flow then FLUXUS when you got all three as fast as you can. Remember now that you've lost retardation vampires, monks, and the torc makes decent people immune to this route of killing. You'll need to go for damage against them.

Ideal Matches:
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Syssin: We negate enough of their venoms, that their already weak offense is made even worse.

Shamans: By the fact we negate enough of their loki to give us an edge on them and since most of their fighting is active, transfix looping them in retardation is the best method to kill them.

Lycan: In retardation they can pose a problem because of their howls. However, because of the highly automated nature of most lycans, smart systems can handle the bulk of this offense. From there, they're one of the squisher classes. In retardation you can rip them apart with damage. 

Luminary: Very similar to lycans. They have some pretty nice passive offense, however their main damage and afflictions are active ones. Transfix looping them is a must, but once you're on a roll, there's no way this class can keep up to your high pressure.

Templar: Another one of the classes that relies on venoms, by putting up retardation your galeward will stop a few of their venoms, leaving their offense to mediocre damage. Take these ones down as you would a syssin. Alternatively, shatter an arm to slow down their offense/negate it. Then either damage or brand them. 

Carnifex: Very similar to templar, but require a MUCH LONGER build up. However, since retardation slows down their offense, it's very very hard for them to build up a fight against you in retardation. Add onto that rebounding, which they can't really raze and hit you at the same time. Then you have a declawed cat.

Worse Case Matches
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Bloodborn and Praenomen: Very much the same reason for the two of them. The fact they don't need to be unhindered to use mentis will be the downfall of you. If the pressure you keep on them isn't going straight for the voidgaze to stick confusion on them. You will very quickly come into a bad time as their double affliction, three if they're unafflicted and plethora of passive means to afflict you can spell the end of your offense.

Cabalist and Indorani: The domination skillset will be very hard to handle in retardation with their active offense. Your best bet is to use your high minion damage of staffcast to send their minions back to the shadow realm. Then you should put down retardation and try to transfix loop them for a kill. Be very careful if you're not confident in dealing with their mainly hidden offense. Hidden confusion can cause you to lose a battle. 

Sentinels: If a sentinel can make you hit a dart trap in retardation, you're screwed, but only if the sentinel knows how to calculate what you will cure based on retardation delay, and plans this envenoming thus. If you can get them in retardation without darts, you'll manage to sneak by a win because of the slow down on them by retardation and your plague vibe. 

Ascendril: With many of the same skills as us and no way to deal with their vibes that doesn't negatively affect you. You're looking at a very wonky way of fighting. Many times your ping will determine who gets the first transfix or brand off first. That will make or break a fight. 

Monks: They can negate your ability to brand kill and behead them entirely, which makes them damage required kills. For extremely tanky monks, this might prove to be almost impossible.

Torc of Telepathy: I've found this out the hard way, but halfway decent people will become all but immortal to the class with just this artifact. Hopefully you'll never need to face it, but it's low balance time and the ability to instantly stop your brands makes it so there's no way to brand or brainsmash which are all the bread and butter of your offense.

Team Fights:
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In a team fight you have two tools to help settle a match, meteoswarm and crystalism.
In order for crystalism to work, you need to have the people you will be fighting enemied to you. Then embed your vibes, make sure to not use retardation unless your team oks it. This can cost THEM the match.

The second is meteoswarm. With a relatively low balance time of 3.55(with wise and crown, this isn't the fastest or the slowest tool in your book. However, what it does is wonderful. Unlike stormhammer, which will require you to set three targets, and the balance time increasing based on this. This skill will always use 3.55. If you team fight in retardation, this will be your bread and butter. As it hits everyone you have enemied, those that can't handle retardation will be quickly brought down by this physical damage spell. If you're in a group of Sciomancers, you won't even need retardation. As a group and spamming this, you'll pelt the entire enemy team with 2k+(roughly 900/1k damage from every sciomancer, expecting wise with amulet and blessing) damage every 3.5k seconds. For an enemy to kill someone it'll take them 10 seconds. Factor in 3 rounds and you've killed their entire team in the space it took them to take down one of you. 

Transfix and voidgazing is the second way to be a great asset to your team. By using Transfix you disable one person, and by spamming voidgaze you'll wittle them down at the same time as leave them open to your teammates other means of damage. If grouped with other sciomancers, that means you can all voidgaze them for rapid kills.

The last is staffcasting. It deals more DPS than stormhammering and I'll need to twiddle more with lash to see if that actually puts out even higher DPS than stafcasting. However, if you need to put quick damage on someone, this is the choice you should make. Of course, remember class reistances. This will not do a lot of damage to luminaries or daru. That's just a fact. 

Final Thoughts and Tips:
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Sciomancers are most likely one of the most annoying classes to fight. You'll have a hard time to finding people to fight you when you get good at usually the full offensive toolset of the class. With retardation, you are a God. If people think they can fight you in retardation, they're joking themselves. They're merely adapting to retardation. Your class with born in it, molded by it. Show them how good you is, by NOT WAITING FOR BALANCES. In retardation spamming is a good way to go. Outside of retardation, your class is greatly a hit and miss. Without singularities or brand spamming for kills, you'll see that you don't have all the nice things that ascendril have and your active offense is not all that considering your competition. 

Make sure to toggle your offense and curing based on if you're in retardation or not. This SHOULD NOT BE something you toggle, but something your system does by itself. It should reset itself every so often and see if you're still in it. I check every 3 seconds if I'm still in retardation, just to make sure I'm not pulled out and I'm spamming my cures to all heck.

The main problem with your skillset is securing the kill. You have very very little means to prevent people from writhing from transfix,melting an icewall, and then fording out or leaping out. You need to accept this fact. People running is part of combat, and don't get discouraged because of it. If they ran, they did so because in reality, they can't handle your offense or something messed up. Don't chase them down, but stay still and calm. You're in control.If it's getting too much for you, just head back to your city/haven.

Singularities in teamfights are something to do when you're outnumbered and you believe that you can secure the victory. Remember, that these will affect you and your teammates. Don't singularity them to death, just use one so that you can speed up your meteoswarm/stormhammer/voidgaze shenanigans. 

I hate the torc of telepathy solely in this class. I've spent literally a weekend after I've lost to it's ability to negate the class' offense pondering of ways to try to overcome it from the class' perspective and mechanic wise, it's just too good. In overall performance the torc is generally just too good and it become even better in retardation to the point of being too strong. Against the class in or outside of retardation, this will make you have a bad time and make winning extremely difficult.  

Replication is only usable against 3 classes: Vampires, Luminarines, and Shamans. Against the first two classes, it will get you killed. Against the last class it is not worth using most of the time. Against all three classes do not use it unless you have robes of the magi and a huge mana pool 8k+ and plus sip. This is one of the very few things in the game that is artifact required to use within a class. To use it against the three classes, use it to copy the bile from a praenomen, temptation/seduction, and then use it to grab any combination of confusion and a goldenseal affliction(hopefully impatience). Using this without the huge mana pool and/or lvl 3 mana sip WILL get you killed. Against luminaries you'll use it to copy evoke lightning, dazzle, or chasten stupidity. The huge mana pool requirement is EVEN MORE required against luminaries. This skill will get you killed if you use it against them even with all of that being true. Lastly against shamans use it to copy skills like omen because that stun can be killer in retardation even without additional affs, also their standard loki hit is also useful since you can't affliction with your regular means of damage. With warning, you'll usually be better off using pestilence than loki. Also if they're using omen you might want to go on the offensive instead of copying it immediatly and trying to use it. 

You might have seen only a few things have changed in this guide since when I first made it, really figure out most thing pretty fast. However, I was really surprised after getting a tell from someone that stormhammering wasn't really worth it. It's not. Only like 150 more damage when used on me for like 650 more mana, 5 times the mana cost plus 1/4 bonus equilibrium for 150 more damage. Either the formula might have been bugged or that wasn't thought out too well. 

Fighting Against another Sciomancer as a Sciomancer or not:
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I've found this out the hard way, but thorn sigils, flamed and dropped, will and I repeat WILL ALWAYS sever all element channels of a sciomancer or ascendril. Staying in that room for a sciomancer is as good as giving up his entire skillset. There is nothing that will stop it, fortifications and binding only give percentage chances to prevent it. They'll need to devote far too much time to maintain their channels and barely have any time left to attack you. In retardation this is even worse. 

As a sciomancer, you can overcome this with the use of a dagger and morning star. Nothing will take away your weaponry. 

I see a mage branding, what do?
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A frequent mistake people make is to IMMEDIATLY try to stop them. If you're playing an affliction based class, keep going. They'll be unable to cure for four seconds, make sure you hit them twice with two double afflictions, and then disable them on the third time. As double slashing class, that means you get tons of free damage on them you'd be hard pressed to miss, double sensitivity and then paralysis and strip their blindness. They'll be up a creak without a paddle because of the 3 seconds of hard herb balance given to them. This free build up can end the match with them. If you're a sciomancer, stopping them is also your best route, as transfixing will bring them into your voidgaze spam. If you have the torc of telepathy, you can spam it to completely negate this route of offense for a sciomancer. 

HELP THEY'RE USING SINGULARITIES::
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Follow this checklist:
"How many did they drop?" If only one or two then
"Are they staying in the room?" If yes then
"Are they trying to damage me too?" If yes then
Kill them. As a mage they have no active means of hindering someone outside of retardation transfixing. So if you're not in retardation, rip into them with the biggest damage dealing more you have. Remember, it's not about worrying about balance. It's about putting the fear of god into them. Damage them back, and they'll let up their offense to try to reflect or shield. If you're at full health and they are too. There's nothing that's to worry about a singularities or two. Vigour is an amazing way to negate this. DO NOT SHIELD, it takes you four seconds to shield, and them only 1.5 to strip. As another Sciomancer, they just did your job for you. Lay into them hard with staffcasts as they singularity to build up early damage first. This'll put them behind and cause them to kill themselves. 

HELP THEY'RE TRANSFIXING ME, THEY GOING TO VOIDGAZE ME TO DEATH
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No they're not. Paralysis should be one of the first things you hit if you're in retardation. The next is stupidity. Most classes have a way to do this BOTH at once. Huzzah, you've now immobilized them. What to do next? Kill 'em. If your means of paralysis and stupidity are also your prime source of damage, looking at you knights and vampires, you have the ability to wreck them. As another Sciomancer, you've got to transfix them first. Start by throwing paralysis at them. If you do it fast enough it'll stop them from transfixing you. Then IMMEDIATLY go into the transfix. Which you should pull off without a hitch. Now voidgaze spam for the brand and either go for a brand kill or do some old fashion shatter spamming.

Hey I'm a sciomancer and what is this time sphere?
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If retardation is ssj2, this is even further beyonder. If you use this while setting up for a brainsmash/beheading, you'll have a much better chance of doing it or throw your chance out the window. HOWEVER, this affects you just as much, and the 30 second window means DO IT RIGHT BEFORE YOU GO FOR THE BRAINSMASH/BEHEADING. This effectively makes the room in retardation for 30 seconds, only for offensive moves and healing. Put this with retardation, and you've successfully frozen time for 30 seconds. Now I've tried this, and no this will not negate the torc of telepathy. It WILL allow you to brand inbetween long balance/equilibrium attacks though. That is the single only way you will manage to get a brand past someone with a torc is if their natural balance recovery can be pushed BEYOND the time for a brand+2 seconds for leewaying. 

Hey, as a sciomancer I'm having problems against the torc of telepathy what do?
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As a sciomancer I've found this artifact to be the most worrisome thing in this game base purely on function. As you have no way to knock equilibrium or deliver the peace affliction reliably. There is no way to stop this artifact from being used. Unlike things like howls or entities there is no long CD between uses of it. You're left with something that can be spammed in retardation to completely negate your offense and something outside of retardation to stall all of your good follow up skills and all your good methods of killing. The best way to face it is to give up on brainsmashing and branding. The artifact negates these skills far too well for the sciomancer class to handle. Focus on damage killing them by dropping singularities and then using the totem/beacon to teleport out of the room before they go off. This might sound cheap, but that's the best thing you can do to someone who uses it efficiently. If they can survive that, just give up or make it so that your totem target is a room away, and then shoot arrows into the room right before the singularities go off. If they survive multiple singularities, do not stay in the room for singularities, or survive multiple singularities+bow shots and walk away you're going to have to give it a break. One of the downsides on the broad range of power the class has, is that this artifact is literally a 750 ticket get out of sciomancer trouble free card. With the heavy reliance in either channeled abilities or burst damage this artifact makes classes who have poor affliction range output look lackluster. Luckily only a few people have it, and we'll be getting a revamp soon. Might sound like I'm getting a little bit upset over it, but after computing balance times aff outputs and the like this is THE counter to the sciomancer class. However, as a wise sciomancer you can also use it to completely negate most offenses in retardation too. Granted it'll work much better in retardation than outside of it on other classes, but in retardation or outside of it the effect of negating the class is pretty much the same if they(the opponent fighting the sciomancer) can deal high damage. 
EsperCalipso

Comments

  • As a side note, it's important to know that the heat vibe in crystalism stops the shadeling passive attack, but not the active one.

  • Random question in relation to the class...did they ever make a means of gathering crystals as a rogue outside of buying from a shop or getting a guilded to fold a pearl and get you some?
  • AlistaireAlistaire Las Vegas, Nevada
    Dominion Crystal artifact allows you to fold pearls into your own portable crystal. Costs 400 cr.
  • Duly noted.  Thanks!
  • KerocKeroc A small cupboardAdministrator, Immortal
    Personally I think you've left out one of their greatest current tools, Replicate.

    They're are a large amount of abilities that don't even require equilibrium or balance that you could easily add into your offence (Sleights, Angel Battle) or even abuse to push blindness (slash oculus, replicate a Dwhisper with herb cures). The ability is pretty much dependant on your creativism.

    I've been waiting for a while for someone to pick up this skill into a mage offense. 90% of skills should happily work with it at this stage.
    MoireanEsper
  • SerriceSerrice the Black Fox
    Most lifers will tell you that such advanced tactics are unnecessary when you can spam transfix and voidgaze, similar to how old Sentinels required nothing more complicated than slash-stab because of quickfoot. 

    Of course, relying on what just one side says is notoriously fickle.
     
    Illikaal
  • IllikaalIllikaal Pray Area
    @Keroc I have to agree with what Serrice says. 

    Being as unbiased as possible, Ascendril otherwise have to make intelligent decisions with Replicate and Gorge under (potentially) retardation. They don't have any direct way of capitalizing on transfix aside from either Branding, intelligent uses of gorging/replicating, or just being flat out annoying. Sciomancers don't have this problem. 

    Even if I -were- a Sciomancer, I probably wouldn't ever use those skills, because frankly, I wouldn't have to. At any rate, I planned on doing some extensive Ascendril combat scenarios so I can write up a proper guide for pre-revamp mages. 

    @Xiuhcoatl: I must say, I give props to you for following the criteria that asked for. This definitely makes for a good guide. This guide definitely gives a fairly thorough and helpful explanation on how to fight as a Sciomancer.
    "And finally, swear to Me: You will give your life to Dendara for you are Tiarna an-Kiar."
  • edited April 2013
    I've tried to use replicate and the costs of the ability are too high and the tools too narrow. Angel battle would be impossible to catch. The skill replicate overall is next to completely useless because of the use of it catching the last attack. Angel battle is the first thing done, and so forth and so on. If we could CAST REPLICATE ABILITY  and let us PICK the ability to copy it would be a more effective tool, If it let us copy an ability of our choice, and use it against more than just the person that used it against us it would be a good ability. However, honestly it uses far too much mana and is far too narrow to be considered anything but a waste of time. 

    Edit: Not to be rude, but that's honestly just personal experience trying to find an area for it. 
  • MoireanMoirean Chairmander Portland
    edited April 2013
    Keroc said:
    Personally I think you've left out one of their greatest current tools, Replicate. They're are a large amount of abilities that don't even require equilibrium or balance that you could easily add into your offence (Sleights, Angel Battle) or even abuse to push blindness (slash oculus, replicate a Dwhisper with herb cures). The ability is pretty much dependant on your creativism. I've been waiting for a while for someone to pick up this skill into a mage offense. 90% of skills should happily work with it at this stage.
    That sounds like the skill been tweaked over the past year? I remember playing with it on my Ascendril and there were some big issues with it. Skills that required certain conditions, such as being mutated into a lycan, ate your eq for the use as you attempted a failed skullwhack or whatever. It was also really limited in what it would copy. I loved the concept of the skill, but found it very awkward to use effectively. I wanna login my mage now and try it out and see how well it works these days!
  • Also, unless I tested wrong, replicate doesn't cast the venom on a normal weapon attack; you just hit them with the stick or whatever.

  • Let me open with 'I'm grateful for this, thank you for your work'. I do mean it, by the way - cool of you to write about your class, and you raise some interesting points.


    ...And now to what I have wanted to say since you posted it: I crack up every time I see this topic, and I do not think of the vibe first.

    Arbre-Today at 7:27 PM

    You're a vindictive lil unicorn
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    Lartus-Today at 7:16 PM

    oh wait, toz is famous

    Karhast-Today at 7:01 PM

    You're a singularity of fucking awfulness Toz
    ---------------------------
    Didi's voice resonates across the land, "Yay tox."
    ---------------------------

    Ictinus11/01/2021

    Block Toz
    ---------------------------

    limToday at 10:38 PM


    you disgust me
    ---------------------------
    (Web): Bryn says, "Toz is why we can't have nice things."

  • KerocKeroc A small cupboardAdministrator, Immortal
    Esper said:

    Also, unless I tested wrong, replicate doesn't cast the venom on a normal weapon attack; you just hit them with the stick or whatever.

    You're right it doesn't. I'll fix that tonight.
  • KerocKeroc A small cupboardAdministrator, Immortal
    edited April 2013
    Moirean said:
    Keroc said:
    Personally I think you've left out one of their greatest current tools, Replicate. They're are a large amount of abilities that don't even require equilibrium or balance that you could easily add into your offence (Sleights, Angel Battle) or even abuse to push blindness (slash oculus, replicate a Dwhisper with herb cures). The ability is pretty much dependant on your creativism. I've been waiting for a while for someone to pick up this skill into a mage offense. 90% of skills should happily work with it at this stage.
    That sounds like the skill been tweaked over the past year? I remember playing with it on my Ascendril and there were some big issues with it. Skills that required certain conditions, such as being mutated into a lycan, ate your eq for the use as you attempted a failed skullwhack or whatever. It was also really limited in what it would copy. I loved the concept of the skill, but found it very awkward to use effectively. I wanna login my mage now and try it out and see how well it works these days!
    The skillpoint issue with Replicate was fixed a good while ago. It acts as though you are transcendent when copying an ability.

    Any bugs with Replicate you can message me about, I would love to fix them.
    Moirean
  • edited April 2013
    Toz said:
    Let me open with 'I'm grateful for this, thank you for your work'. I do mean it, by the way - cool of you to write about your class, and you raise some interesting points.


    ...And now to what I have wanted to say since you posted it: I crack up every time I see this topic, and I do not think of the vibe first.
    It's a quote from Bane. 
    Edit: If we're able to copy dsl's with the venom's. Then I'll need to start messing around with it. I thought that was just how the skill was suppose to be. 
  • I'll be updating this by noon.
  • edited July 2013
    Edit: I retract my earlier comment. He edited his initial comments and I was anticipating a new post all together. My mistake.
    Stathan
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