Advice - race/specialization selection

Florentino

Hi guys,

Looking for some thoughts on how I should reincarnate, in terms of both race and spec.

1) I've been a Horkval serpent for a while (was maxing out for con before the recent serpent classleads)

2) no relevant arties

3) nimble and robust are my major traits so far (not 80 yet so I don't have a 3rd), marksman is my minor

4) I'm mostly interested in group combat and raids, only slightly interested in bashing and not really interested in duel-type 1v1

I've been thinking about going atavian, raja, and mhun. Any general advice (along with answers to these specific questions) would be great:

1) how worthwhile is the ability to fly? what's the balance time on atavian flying?

2) how worthwhile is mhun celerity for a sneaky/perma-infamous type? 

3) what kinds of darkness can mhun see through?

4) what's the dodging bonus for raja?

Antonius

Flying is really useful. It can get you out of combat (or at least give you a breather), gets you past certain obstructions more quickly than tumbling (though not as quickly as leaping), and I'm pretty sure you can phase while flying for added benefit when infiltrating. I'm not entirely sure on the balance time for Atavian, but if it's the same as Dragon it's somewhere in the 4 second region.

Celerity is absolutely fantastic, especially if you find yourself wanting or needing to move about quickly (which you will if you have a habit of getting jumped). It makes such a big difference that I now absolutely hate any time I'm forced to play without it (mostly world events like egghunts).

Not sure on the other questions so I'll leave those for other people.

Iocun

Flying is awesome and useful in many combat situations. Flying is also nice for snipe-serpents, since you can snipe down from the air. You won't be using it much to get past obstructions, since you have evade, but it's great for travelling in the wilderness.

Mhun celerity is awesome too, but I consider it more a general utility thing than a straight combat advantage. If you're good at running away, you can run away without the celerity just as much. I actually have no idea about the darkness thing. Might grant the same thing as nightsight?

Dunno about the dodging bonus either, but I'm doubtful whether it's really of that much use. In group combat/raids you generally don't want to melee very much as a serpent anyways, but stay mobile, so the bonuses of the other races (esp. atavian) will help more.

Florentino

What's the relative Dex v Con v Int balance I should be trying to maintain? Just give up on Con and try to max out Dex, or...?

Iocun

If you're interested in group combat and not in 1v1, there's no real need to invest in dex at all. You'll mainly rely on archery, making dstab/flay more side-abilities. Backstab squads remain effective no matter how fast you recover balance from the backstab. Faster phasing can be useful, but I doubt the small boost to it would be worth giving up on so much con.

Florentino

Hrm, really? Can see dex being relevant for some group/skirmish things..

1) what's the phase channel time on different Dex scores?
2) what's the flay channel time on different Dex scores? (I sometimes dstab in group combat, not just snipe)

3) what's the backstab channel time on different Dex scores? (Gotta jump people...)

Oh, and maybe the most important thing to mention - I'm interested in thievery. As in, will be doing it for as long as I'm still playing probably.

So the question there is...

4) How well does pickpocket work with different Dex scores?

@Mycen @Saibel @Arditi @Sena @Antidas

Iocun

Can't really help you with any of those, I'm afraid. I don't know the exact numbers for anything but dstabs. So yeah, the people you tagged are probably better equipped to answer!

Sena

I haven't tested any of those either. I can say that I saw no difference between 12 and 15 dex for pickpocketing denizens, but that's not very useful information, and I didn't test it very thoroughly.

I can get numbers for backstab/phase/flay at 14 dex, if someone else can provide other values for comparison.

Antidas

I don't know exactly how it affects flay, but I can tell you that it does speed the time up on it considerably. As for the rest of your questions, however, I honestly haven't seen much of a difference in the channel time of any of the abilities that were supposed to be modified by dex. I imagine the chances of pickpocket being successful are also fairly dependent on it, but I don't know those numbers either.

Arditi

Phase with 18 Dex was about three seconds. You phase and then get balance back.

Backstab channel was under two. Noticable change from 12 Dex.

Pickpocket chances for specific items are still being worked, I'm thinking there was a stealth nerf to being able to pickpocket loyals, but I'm testing.

Dodging is still trickier to discern, I can't be bothered to test that further.

Borran

Why would anyone ever need that much dex?!

Arditi

Borran said:

Why would anyone ever need that much dex?!

Three. Second. Phase.

It's like having a curved sword. Curved. Swords.

You can't fully explain it to someone who doesn't already realize how amazing it is.

Borran

WTB lvl 3 dex boots nao! Why are the credits always gone?

Arditi

Daeir said:

3 second phase is great, having the ehp of someone 30 levels lower than you is not.

I'm perfectly okay with them only having one to two balances to kill me.

Because then I will be phased.