Quick Combat Questions

Sanna

Can someone explain to me what makes Serpents so good for infiltrating?

Mammon

@Exelethril. 

Paladin > Runewarden, imo. Just stay Paladin. Also, what's your strength before inspiration and fury? Make sure it's at least 15. I think you have your basic defensive arties in a sip ring, and you're a Paladin so it's not like you're in dire need for them anyway. You may want to invest in an invincible pet, too. Be sure to grab a tuning fork if you don't already have one. 

So essentially (Some of these you will have): Invincible pet, level 1 sip ring (at least), base strength of 15 (at least), at least 4,700 max hp, silver tuning fork, wings, ring of flying, diadem. 

Can't think of what else you would ever want to throw credits on as a Pally apart from decent rapiers. 

Eld

Sanna said:

Can someone explain to me what makes Serpents so good for infiltrating?

Phase lets them walk around an enemy city without being easily detectable (unless there's another phased serpent watching for them) and without getting hit by guards and totems, and evade lets them enter an area without showing up on mindnet.

Sena

Sanna said:

Can someone explain to me what makes Serpents so good for infiltrating?

Evade allows you to move without setting off mindnet, trace, forestwatch (I think), alertness, etc., it bypasses blocking, walls and other hindering, and prevents totems from hitting you. Phase removes you from who/qw/etc., mostly prevents anyone but another phased serpent from finding your location (though there are ways for an unphased person to find you), and makes you untouchable (except from other phased serpents) until someone catches you with an eye sigil. Warp is helpful as well in some cases.

Naisar

@Talonia Ganking of people just getting into group combat is terrible for longevity and a healthy combat scene, but you can't expect players to take this into account.  It's the designers & admins who are responsible for managing that; the only thing you can reasonably expect from players is for them to consistently make the decisions that are immediately beneficial to them.

Madrax

Do arties still work when you turn into a dragon?

Mammon

Yes

But you lose traits

Eld

All you lose in dragonform are your class skills, racial traits, and major traits.

Madrax

Ok that's good to know, I just need to get to dragon form first lol

Achilles

Madrax said:

Do arties still work when you turn into a dragon?

You losing riding (dragons can't ride mounts), you could lose your bow if you don't pay for the darkbow upgrade and you lose your class defenses (ie Fitness, Mastery).  You also lose lose healing buffs like earthshield, thermal shield.  You do keep runes though.

Eld

Achilles said:

Madrax said:

Do arties still work when you turn into a dragon?

You losing riding (dragons can't ride mounts), you could lose your bow if you don't pay for the darkbow upgrade and you lose your class defenses (ie Fitness, Mastery).  You also lose lose healing buffs like earthshield, thermal shield.  You do keep runes though.

Well, you still have the riding skill, you just can't ride things, but yeah. Bowmanship (and therefore the ability to SHOOT/SNIPE without an artie bow with the SHOOT addition) is a class skill. Never had an earthshield or thermal shield, so wouldn't know, but I was referring to losing the abilities, rather than effects that go away when you dragonform; I assume you can still have earthshield cast on you in dragonform (that's one of the ones you can cast on other people, right?).

Achilles

Mammon said:

@Exelethril. 

Paladin > Runewarden, imo. Just stay Paladin. Also, what's your strength before inspiration and fury? Make sure it's at least 15. I think you have your basic defensive arties in a sip ring, and you're a Paladin so it's not like you're in dire need for them anyway. You may want to invest in an invincible pet, too. Be sure to grab a tuning fork if you don't already have one. 

So essentially (Some of these you will have): Invincible pet, level 1 sip ring (at least), base strength of 15 (at least), at least 4,700 max hp, silver tuning fork, wings, ring of flying, diadem. 

Can't think of what else you would ever want to throw credits on as a Pally apart from decent rapiers. 

You left off the best artie for Paladins, a lupine bow.

Mammon

Erm

To elaborate on that...

As far as I'm aware, Exelethril was talking about 1v1. 

Achilles

lupine still somewhat useful to an extent 1v1 vs magi or damage tactics with meteors.

Antonius

Exelethril said:

I was wondering if it's worth buying a soulpiercer right away or upgrading my level 1 gauntlets to level 2, which would set me back 750 credits(~5 months of IRE credits) or buying an amnesia pet(~7 months) before buying a soulpiercer. 

Also, I'm still a Paladin but would double soulpiercers on a Runewarden be an "end" sight based on how much damage they can dish out? I can't switch yet since I'm at 2200 lessons but would need 500 more IRE membership lessons(5 per day~100 days) before I have enough to switch and tri-trans.

My current rapier stats are : 86/154/231- 205 days and 62/158/239 - 163 days.

A Soulpiercer would be considerably better than your second rapier; you're trading 11 points of speed for 28 points of damage and 40 points of to-hit. However, it's also a lot of credits. Dual Soulpiercers are very, very nice, especially if you have a decent level of strength behind them. They're just about fast enough to allow any of the setups you'd want to try, but also provide the option to just damage people out that you don't necessarily get with forged rapiers (unless they're absolutely godly).

If you're already Trans Forging, and have forged a decent suit of fullplate, I really can't see any need to Trans Forging again if you switch class. That would significantly lower the amount of lessons you'd actually need to do it.

Mammon said:

@Exelethril. 

Paladin > Runewarden, imo. Just stay Paladin. Also, what's your strength before inspiration and fury? Make sure it's at least 15. I think you have your basic defensive arties in a sip ring, and you're a Paladin so it's not like you're in dire need for them anyway. You may want to invest in an invincible pet, too. Be sure to grab a tuning fork if you don't already have one. 

So essentially (Some of these you will have): Invincible pet, level 1 sip ring (at least), base strength of 15 (at least), at least 4,700 max hp, silver tuning fork, wings, ring of flying, diadem. 

Can't think of what else you would ever want to throw credits on as a Pally apart from decent rapiers. 

Earrings, obviously. If you don't already have one, buy Mayan crowns and get a scrying bowl because Farsight just doesn't cut it (especially after you've been spoilt by Dragonsense). I've found a level two mana regen ring, permanent moon and amulet of the will to be absolutely fantastic for keeping up a whole load of mana/willpower draining defences.

Mammon

Earrings for a non-mark Cyrenian? With who? I guess for utility you could grab a pair with Wysteria for quick travel? But in your situation meh.

Sanna

Naisar said:

@Talonia Ganking of people just getting into group combat is terrible for longevity and a healthy combat scene, but you can't expect players to take this into account.  It's the designers & admins who are responsible for managing that; the only thing you can reasonably expect from players is for them to consistently make the decisions that are immediately beneficial to them.

Yeah. I don't think many people take this into account.

Madrax

This may sound silly or dumb but I want to know which class is good for hunting and gaining gold.. a serpent or a blademaster? I know serpents can use pickpocket but is it worth the trouble of trying to make a trigger to try steal from players? (and NPCs?). I was just wanting to know because I wanna hunt for creatures/other players for gold so I can at least think of getting me a artie if I want too.

Sena

Blademaster is better than serpent for hunting (although warp is very convenient). At high levels, that means blademaster is also better at earning gold, because high level hunting is one of the best sources of gold in the game. Before that though, questing is the best source of gold, and so serpent is better because warp makes it so much easier to get around and quest more quickly. Pickpocketing denizens is a nice bonus as well.

Although for 800 credits, anyone can buy the ability to warp, so at that point serpent doesn't have much of an advantage.

Pickpocketing players can be a good way to get gold as well, but that will take a lot more effort and determination, it's the sort of thing you'd make a long-term profession out of and not just something you can pick up at any moment for some quick gold. And of course you'd have to be prepared to get hunted a lot and have a lot of enemies.

Madrax

Hmm.. didn't know you can buy abilities, well thanks for the info @Sena

Antonius

You can't buy any ability you want, but some are made available through artefacts. Warp, for instance, is granted by the vibrating stick.

Madrax

Ahh I see, well that makes sense now.

Achilles

Quick list I can think of (a lot of them serpents have, hence the joke (or perhaps unnerving fear) about an evade artefact

Bows - Gives you the darkbows ability that's in chivalry and subterfuge

Swiftmount - Gives you a chivalry ability

Vibrating stick - Subterfuge

Anklet of dashing - Subterfuge/Shindo

Mask of lifevision - Occultism, Shindo, Necromancy

Iocun

Bracer of frost - Elementalism.

Wolverine's claws - Metamorphosis.

Torc of Telepathy - Telepathy.

Anklet of Dashing - Metamorphosis/Subterfuge/Shindo

Shadowcloak - Subterfuge/Necromancy/Occultism.

Staff of Illusion - Elementalism/Subterfuge/other illusion abilities.

Madrax

do you have to hold the vibrating stick to use warp or can you just have it on your person?

Delphinus

It just needs to be in your inventory.

Madrax

Alright, thanks

Exelethril

Mammon said:

@Exelethril. 

Paladin > Runewarden, imo. Just stay Paladin. Also, what's your strength before inspiration and fury? Make sure it's at least 15. I think you have your basic defensive arties in a sip ring, and you're a Paladin so it's not like you're in dire need for them anyway. You may want to invest in an invincible pet, too. Be sure to grab a tuning fork if you don't already have one. 

So essentially (Some of these you will have): Invincible pet, level 1 sip ring (at least), base strength of 15 (at least), at least 4,700 max hp, silver tuning fork, wings, ring of flying, diadem. 

Can't think of what else you would ever want to throw credits on as a Pally apart from decent rapiers. 

Thanks @Antonius and @Mammon. I upgraded my gauntlets to level 2 while waiting for my IRE membership lessons to reach 2700(~500 to go). I have 900 credits left so, I should almost have enough to buy a soulpiercer when I switch classes.

Edit: I'm switching for RP reasons, a friend of mine who used to play Achaea four years ago really liked Good™ RP and set Exelethril's course that way. I'm not really into combat anymore.

Naisar

What's the balance reduction from Juggling?

Guess I'll add the connected question; about how fast can a Jester throw Juggled Daggers with the knife thrower trait?

Sena

It takes 1.2s balance to start juggling an item, and throwing a juggled item takes 70% less balance. A thrown weapon also does 75% less damage.

With knife thrower, nimble, and juggling, I'd expect a stock dagger (199 speed) to be a bit under 1 second (0.8-ish?).