Quick Questions

Shunsui

When deepsea diving, do places where the bell rings two or three times even exist? I feel like I've covered pretty much the entire world and only find spots with a single ring.

Eld

Shunsui said:

When deepsea diving, do places where the bell rings two or three times even exist? I feel like I've covered pretty much the entire world and only find spots with a single ring.

There've been forum tales of multiple-ring dives, but I don't think I've ever talked to anyone personally who claimed to have gotten one. Not sure it's supposed to be a function of location, though; I would think that if you just dive in the same spot, you'll have the same chance of getting one as if you move around (unless there's some dependence on how recently somenone has dived there).

Sena

It does depend on location. And "Locations that are visited least often have a growing chance of having the best treasures (meaning, more bells)", though I'm not sure whether "visited" means dived in or sailed through.

Also, everyone on a ship at the time is apparently informed of 5+ bell dives anywhere on the ocean, and I've never heard of any.

Delphinus

Sena said:

...though I'm not sure whether "visited" means dived in or sailed through.

Dived in. The ocean is segmented into squares of a certain size -- I want to say 10x10, but don't quote me on that. Each square has a certain number of points, which represent rings. When someone dives in that square, the count is reset to the lowest amount, and those points are redistributed randomly throughout the sea. As a result, less-dived locations will accumulate more worth over time.

Eld

Sena said:

It does depend on location. And "Locations that are visited least often have a growing chance of having the best treasures (meaning, more bells)", though I'm not sure whether "visited" means dived in or sailed through.

Also, everyone on a ship at the time is apparently informed of 5+ bell dives anywhere on the ocean, and I've never heard of any.

Is that quote from a HELP somewhere? I couldn't find one with any indication of location-dependence.

Related question: does SOUNDING give you any indication of the quality of a diving spot, or just a binary answer on whether it's deep enough to dive there?

Sena

Announce 2787.

Ramas

As a BM should I learn the skill Parry or does it come with it being a Blademaster?

Eld

Ramas said:

As a BM should I learn the skill Parry or does it come with it being a Blademaster?

You need the ability in weaponry, same as anyone else.

Ramas

Eld said:

Ramas said:

As a BM should I learn the skill Parry or does it come with it being a Blademaster?

You need the ability in weaponry, same as anyone else.

Alrighty then, thanks but I have to ask after I learned it.. is it automatic when someone engages me and I parry?

Sena

If someone targets a specific body part (left/right arm/leg, torso, head) with an attack, and you're parrying that specific body part, you'll automatically parry the attack.

Ramas

alright thank you!

Rispok

I have heard a.. 7 bell dive before? It may have been 9.

The most I have gotten from dives was ~300k in a go, but those were from 1 bell rings. Didn't notice if it was 1 strong bell or 1 weak bell, didn't even know there was a difference until reading that announce post.

Ramas

Not sure if this a good question or not but here goes..

What kinds of masks can you wear?

Anaidiana

Ramas said:

Not sure if this a good question or not but here goes..

What kinds of masks can you wear?

The sky's the limit. Any crafter worth their license can make you pretty much any sort of mask you'd like, within the Achaean Crafting Guidelines.

Ramas

Alright, thanks for the info

Melodie

Armband of Celerity, -OR- getting some changes to my pet (for RP purposes) plus a ranger's bow (purchasing SHOOT ability with it)?

It should be noted I just got dragon and will be beginning to learn how to make myself useful there. The bow would mainly be for city defense purposes (excommunicated priest can't help much, and dragon will take a bit to get used to).

I've been eyeing that armband for a while now (hasty messages be mostly gone!), but fixing up Solii so I could enjoy having her out with me, plus having an extra use in defense would be pleasant.

Opinions/advice?

Kuruvar

If it were me I'd go for the pet + bow for the simple reason that you're effectively adding features to the game that way.

Archery is neat (and a big deal in raids since they often have extended ranged phases) and creating new RP opportunities is always going to be worthwhile; that's probably part of what keeps you around in the first place, isn't it?

Antonius

I absolutely love my armband. It doesn't give you anything new, sure, but a much reduced frequency on hasty messages is just worth it. Perhaps that isn't as understandable if you haven't ever had it, I'm not sure. One of the reasons I remained Mhun for such a long period after returning, despite the race and trait changes, was that perk (I reincarnated very shortly after purchasing my armband). The difference between Dragon and Mhun was huge. Even now following people who don't have celerity seems painfully slow in comparison.

That said, it seems a waste to have paid the credits for a pet and then not be able to really use it for whatever reason. I'd say the best choice, if you can afford it, is the changes plus the armband. I assume that's slightly out of your budget currently but it would probably be worth waiting.

Melodie

Definitely out of my budget to get the changes plus the armband - would take another 3-4 weeks of saving, roughly.

Argh, conflicted!

Eld

Melodie said:

Definitely out of my budget to get the changes plus the armband - would take another 3-4 weeks of saving, roughly. Argh, conflicted!

Get the pet changes and then save for the armband if it's something you really want?

Kazu

Honestly, I think the armband is one of the least important arties for any non-serpent or heavy combat person. I mean, it might cut 5-10 seconds off a general walk and maybe 30 off some trip off north? That's for 500 credits. I'd much rather get something more interesting or just save and upgrade something more useful like a sip ring. If you are looking at 500 credit arties to buy though, go with the lyre. It can help with both bashing and raids, and it might be interesting to develop a taste in music since you are from Cyrene!

Sena

The armband could save much more than 30 seconds on long wilderness trips, if you're not walking normally through slow terrain. It would save 30 seconds just going from Valho Coast to Istarion. Going from Northreach to some place far north would probably be twice that (I don't know any exact distances for that, though). If you frequently travel through the wilderness, it can make a big difference (though a vibrating stick would be better for northern Sapience specifically).

And if you walk manually, you see "Now now, don't be so hasty!" far less often with the movement bonus, which is a nice bonus entirely separate from getting places faster.

Melodie

I borrowed a lyre for hunting once, and I honestly didn't feel much of a difference, since sipping strips it. Maybe I've just not really figured it out, though. Besides that, Mel's thing has always been harps.

I just got stupidly addicted to the movement bonus from the chocolates, really. The extra movement is VERY, very noticeable. As for the sip ring, already level two, and getting the third is waaaay down on the list.

Edit for @Agravain: No. :P

Agravain

Class change

Iocun

I traded in my lyre. It's really not all that amazing, in all honesty. Sure, if you manage your sipping and stuff well, you can make it quite useful, but there are just too many things that still break it/hit through it, and if you want to completely turtle up there are usually other ways of doing that too (burrow, duanathar, earrings, refuge, raido, shield spam, whatever).

The Armband of Celerity is a great artie, as long as you can make full use of it (meaning: if you're walking manually and are bad at remembering directions, you won't be able to fully capitalize on it). I play a mhun with an armband and whenever there's a world event that has the celerity bonus turned off I really get slapped in the face with how slow everything gets.

Any RP stuff (pet, customisations, etc.) are always worth it too though, as long as you go about it carefully and don't pick stuff that will grow annoying/boring very quickly. Many people tend to go overboard with pets and customisations and make them do all sorts of "fun"/crazy stuff that seem exciting once or twice, but start to get on your nerves once you've seen them a single time already. I usually find that the "RP purchases" that bring the most lasting enjoyment are the relatively small and inconspicuous things that add that give you that small additional personal touch without screaming into everyone's face "look at me, I'm custom!".

Melodie

Agreed entirely, @Iocun, and the changes I'm making to Solii address exactly that. I'm re-adjusting her description somewhat, as well as getting rid of nine fairly annoying reactions (note she's about six or so OOC years old - I got her when I was still in high school!), and adding about five much better, more thought out, and hopefully LESS ABUSED reactions (you know who you are!). It should make her much better to actually physically keep with me everywhere I go.

Hmm. I wonder if I could buy some credits with my next paycheck and make this less of a headache to pick.

Blujixapug

Depends how cool you would be making your pet. If you're, for example, adding a 3-line emote that fires every 15 minutes, plus a reaction on entry, and maybe something like a cute area-wide yell every time anyone gives it chocolate, then you should definitely do that.

Celerity doesn't seem worth 500cr, on the surface, but once you've played with it, you can't go back.

Bows are overrated unless you're a class with no other ranged capability, raiding/defending from raids a lot, and you have easy access to meteors. In ranged engagements, they let you do something where previously you could do nothing. But if you PK infrequently, it's a hassle to maintain meteor arrows with how fast they decay and how many you need in the situations where you do need them. Shooting regular arrows with a ~50% accuracy rate is kind of crummy.

Sena

Blujixapug said:

Bows are overrated unless you're a class with no other ranged capability, raiding/defending from raids a lot, and you have easy access to meteors.

Bows are cool though. I was saving up for one (before I started bashing and decided I'd rather get a bashing artefact), and I don't raid/defend/fight at all (though I'd probably start defending, just so I would have an excuse to use it).

Melodie

Blujixapug said:

Depends how cool you would be making your pet. If you're, for example, adding a 3-line emote that fires every 15 minutes, plus a reaction on entry, and maybe something like a cute area-wide yell every time anyone gives it chocolate, then you should definitely do that.

No random room emotes. I learned my lesson there. :P The rest of them are like, avoiding being petted, eating birds, playing with rats, etc. I think what I'm going to go ahead and do is get Solii re-done, and just spend some time thinking if I want to get the bow, continue saving, or possibly squeeze my bank account a bit. 

 Thanks everyone for your input! Wasn't expecting the good amount of responses.

Sena said:

Blujixapug said:

Bows
are overrated unless you're a class with no other ranged capability,
raiding/defending from raids a lot, and you have easy access to meteors.

Bows are cool though. I was saving up for one (before I started bashing and decided I'd rather get a bashing artefact), and I don't raid/defend/fight at all (though I'd probably start defending, just so I would have an excuse to use it).

Yes. Yes, bows can be very, very cool. :>

Iocun

Random room emotes are fine as long as you keep them at about 10 words or so and make them generally unobtrusive.