Glorious Return

Tael

Having finished grad school, I am contemplating making a glorious return to Achaea on a new character without any of the substantial baggage Tael has developed over the approximate decade I played him.

I'm looking toward Targossas in particular, but the thing I'm having trouble with is deciding on a class. I also have a few other questions.

1) Now that there's server-side curing, is cobbling together your own system on top of it less of a Herculean task than it used to be? I'd like to go this route, but I'm not sure just how much has been implemented server-side and how much I would have to write myself (I'm a substantially better coder than when I left, but I'm still not sure I'm up to the task if it's too great).

2) Now that there's server-side curing, are affliction classes harder to play in general? I remember that they were already getting harder and harder to be merely competent at (even when they remained competitive at the upper echelons) as more and more people had basic systems in place.

3) Is Blademaster still mostly useless in raids? It was by far my favourite class from an RP perspective and I liked the combat too (insofar as I participated in it), but I always felt like I had nothing to do during raids. Now that ranged combat has been nerfed, do blademasters still feel like they mostly just sit there summoning spark? Is there any hope that the class will ever get a bit more raid utility like virtually every other class possesses?

4) The knight changes look enticing, but what is happening to Chivalry? Are knights retaining falcons and bows (i.e., raid utility)? If blademaster is still largely pointless in raids, I'm considering Paladin.

5) And, just for my own edification, after these years away, have people (read: Sena) finally figured out what the limb damage/health formula actually is?

Also, is there anything I should know about that isn't in the Announces? I read all of them since I left, but anything that comes to mind that I might have missed?

Sena

1) You can do fine just making a client-side system to handle your server-side curing priorities, plus a few other little things, and leaving most of the work (like the actual curing) to server-side. Just not having to worry as much about anti-illusion (because server-side curing is immune to illusions) removes a lot of the complexity. In short, yes, making a hybrid curing system that mixes client-side scripting with server-side curing is easier than making a full client-side system.

2) I'm still not a combatant, but it doesn't seem so. Serpents have gotten some changes to make up for the reduced effectiveness of illusions, and there have been a couple classlead rounds since server-side curing was implemented, so things seem fine for affliction classes (or at least as fine as they were before).

3) Blademaster is about the same, really.

4) Chivalry is pretty much staying as it is I think, except for the weapon-related abilities. You'll still have falcons and archery and the utility stuff.

5) I still haven't worked at all on limb damage. It seems that others have it pretty much figured out, but nobody has actually posted any details on the forums, so I'm not entirely sure.

Arador

1. You should still do affliction tracking as you will need this for your custom strats like when to restore, when to touch tree, when to fitness etc in the most efficient ways. But as for the curing itself, the server side is excellent, I would just say write something to manage it dynamically like for swapping priorities and defense profiles. I really wish they would GMCP non-hidden afflictions.

2. Afflictions classes are pretty well off. Serpent is very strong even without offensive Illusions and you are now less dependent on having a Thoth's fang just to compete. Really all of the affliction classes are in a great place at the moment.

3. With the LoS nerf, melee skirmishes are much more frequent so you will not sit around as much. But the class itself has not really gained anything new in terms of raid utility.

4. What Sena said. All the goodies stay in both Chivalry and your Second skill.

5. So many people claim to know the limb damage details but everyone's counter works only for their rapiers or only at certain health ranges. At best they have really good estimations for a reasonable band of variables.

Ernam

Tael said:

I'm looking toward Targossas in particular, but the thing I'm having trouble with is deciding on a class. I also have a few other questions.

Targossas kicks some serious ass.  Give it a shot - if you enjoy RP, and like most people enjoy being the "underdog" of sorts (a mentality that's slowly fading as we improve), then it's a great place to start.

1) Now that there's server-side curing, is cobbling together your own system on top of it less of a Herculean task than it used to be? I'd like to go this route, but I'm not sure just how much has been implemented server-side and how much I would have to write myself (I'm a substantially better coder than when I left, but I'm still not sure I'm up to the task if it's too great).

Serverside curing still requires complex client side systems to use for anything but basic hunting.  The list of things that Curing system still lacks is quite long, and includes some very basic requirements (like pipe handling, priority swapping functionality, active curing scenarios, and ability to actually see what afflictions you have).  I've tried several combinations of personal and distributed systems with serverside, and have had the best success using SVO for affliction tracking and management of active curing, while using serverside for the actual curing.  There are kinks to work out, but it's the easiest to use, configure, and tweak, by far.


2) Now that there's server-side curing, are affliction classes harder to play in general? I remember that they were already getting harder and harder to be merely competent at (even when they remained competitive at the upper echelons) as more and more people had basic systems in place.

Serverside curing has some serious weaknesses, including the 125-ish millisecond delay it inserts between most curing actions, to simulate latency.  Since many players have a much better latency that that, it can actually be worse in many cases.  However, server-side ignores illusions, so specifically fighting against serpent/dragon has gotten moderately easier, and most serpents now use their illusions for other things than fake afflictions.  Fighting vs non-illusion using affliction classes hasn't really been impacted, aside from the relatively limited functionality it provides for focusing, use of tree tattoo, and total lack of active curing implementation (which is probably for the best anyways) which actually makes fighting vs serverside considerably easier than client-side systems.  Should also mention that serpent got some MASSIVE buffs to compensate for illusions, and some more buffs during recent classleads, and by almost all accounts, has come out a much more powerful class.

3) Is Blademaster still mostly useless in raids? It was by far my favourite class from an RP perspective and I liked the combat too (insofar as I participated in it), but I always felt like I had nothing to do during raids. Now that ranged combat has been nerfed, do blademasters still feel like they mostly just sit there summoning spark? Is there any hope that the class will ever get a bit more raid utility like virtually every other class possesses?

BM is extremely useful in skirmishes, but still pretty useless for city defense.  It's real strength in raids comes from being able to ignore totems with Evade and from Hamstring & Impale, either of which can generally guarantee kills on the target (by someone else).  However, it's lack of LoS and the recent nerfs to artie bows make it's ability to dodge totems less valuable, and without a band and a crap-ton of strength, it can't really dish out much direct DPS (however with 20 str and level 3 band it REALLY can).

4) The knight changes look enticing, but what is happening to Chivalry? Are knights retaining falcons and bows (i.e., raid utility)? If blademaster is still largely pointless in raids, I'm considering Paladin.

There's a whole thread for this - check it out.

5) And, just for my own edification, after these years away, have people (read: Sena) finally figured out what the limb damage/health formula actually is?

Yes, I've solved several of them, down to exact formulae, including my proudest accomplishment, blademaster slashes.  I haven't bothered with standard weapon / weaponry attacks yet, however, since they are soon to change.  I will be solving and incorporating the equations into Manda (the limb damage tracking system I manage)  when it rolls out.

Also, is there anything I should know about that isn't in the Announces? I read all of them since I left, but anything that comes to mind that I might have missed?

Combat-wise, announces should suffice - however the implications of the changes aren't always so obvious - (for instance, BMs can now easily truelock using the new hypochondria).  Politically, you'd have to catch up in-game.  Lots of things changing, especially in Targossas and cities going through Renaissance.

Addama

The things that serverside doesn't do:

1) Automatic Transmute/HealthTrans when below a certain health%
2) Inventory herb/mineral buffer (to prevent riftlocks)
3) Stop upkeep of certain defenses/focusing when below a certain mana %
4) Limb counting
5) Affliction tracking
6) Automatic highlighting
7) Forwarding actions/messages to PT or triggering PT to switch target

SVO does ~all of these things, but some of these things you might not need at all while others you can pretty easily script like the herb/mineral buffer, highlighting and PT triggers.

Ernam

Well it does affliction tracking, we're just not loved enough to be allowed to use it.  

Synbios

Also of note are the most recent changes to blademasters:
1. They can now block directions.
2. While less of a noticable buff, shin burst bypasses shield and barrier defenses(but does not break them), and has a lower eq cost vs players.

Tael

I love you all.

Masaryk

Congrats on finishing grad school

Caladbolg

Affliction combat -has- gotten more difficult in my opinion because of the massive amount of random unseen passive curing that goes on although counterable by voyria.

Blademaster isn't much different than it was before. However, with the LoS changed everyone else is in the same position that Blademaster is in, even if your a monk you can no longer just chain choke people out across the map. which means Melee fights or bust. Although Blademaster is likely the best Hindering class in the game, with Balanceslash,impale and hamstring people ain't goin no where.

Only thing hindering wise I can think of that might be better would be spamming hangedman, but depending on your group setup Impale might as well = hangedman.