A few newbie questions. (mostly about classes and skills)

Isildion

Hi, I'm Isildion, new player to Achea.
I've just finished the tutorial and have to say that it's propably the best tutorial I've seen so far in any mud.

However, even while studying the wiki and helpfiles many questions still remain. So without any more rambling:

1.) How is the gameplay of being a Necromancer (focus on necromancy skill) ? Looking at the skill description it seems that commanding undead is actually a pretty small part of it. (Actually none at all it seems ?)
2.) When playing a Druid, what does your grove collect sunlight for ?
3.) How is the gameplay experience of a "Dominator" (focus on domination skill) ? It does sound like you will be a minion master. What are the rules for that ? (How many minions ?) What kinds of "pets" do you get ? The skills only decribe with what Chaos Lord you bargain but not what you get or offer.
4.) How is the gameplay of someone that focuses on the Occultism skill ? Because the final entry says you will become a Chaos Lord. What does that mean ? Isn't a Chaos Lord some kind of God ? Will you rule over your own chaos plane ? Have your own minions ? Because Chaos Lords are who you deal with under the domnination skill after all.
5.) How do Occultism and Domination compare ? Because the one sells his souls or something to Chaos Lords to get some pets while the other one actually becomes a Chaos Lord himself ? Can you do both ?
6.) The Tutorial mentions lv 99 Players can transform into Dragons, awesome and changes a lot for me, but at lv 100 you will be a Dragon Lord ? What is that ? Just a bigger stronger type of Dragon ?
7.) I know this is something far far in the future, but how does a Dragon play ? Do you still have your class abilities ? Is it actually useful ? Or just for flying and boasting rights because becoming a Dragon doesn't really add to your power ? Like a Wizard who's spellpower isn't affected or cannot cast any spells while in Dragon form ? Would a Warrior-Dragon be stronger than a Wizard-Dragon ? Are all Dragons equal ?
8.) How is the gameplay of a Druid ? Caring for your grove sounds interesting, and the transformations as well. But some appear to be useless, quickly obsolete or just for roleplay purpose ? Like why become a nightingale when you already have a flying form with the owl ? And doesn't the Dragon transformation at the end make all your previous combat-transformations obsolete ?

And please please please don't tell me to "Just try it out" or something. Because I hate wasting my time and I don't have that much time for games to begin with. I get that some of the game is about wondering, mysteries and exploring, but I would be much more motivated by having a clear path ahead of me. Having an explanation in numbers as to what something does.

Thank you for your time, and I hope these questions are okay.

Isildion
 

Rispok

Isildion said:

Hi, I'm Isildion, new player to Achea.
I've just finished the tutorial and have to say that it's propably the best tutorial I've seen so far in any mud.

However, even while studying the wiki and helpfiles many questions still remain. So without any more rambling:

1.) How is the gameplay of being a Necromancer (focus on necromancy skill) ? Looking at the skill description it seems that commanding undead is actually a pretty small part of it. (Actually none at all it seems ?)
2.) When playing a Druid, what does your grove collect sunlight for ?
3.) How is the gameplay experience of a "Dominator" (focus on domination skill) ? It does sound like you will be a minion master. What are the rules for that ? (How many minions ?) What kinds of "pets" do you get ? The skills only decribe with what Chaos Lord you bargain but not what you get or offer.
4.) How is the gameplay of someone that focuses on the Occultism skill ? Because the final entry says you will become a Chaos Lord. What does that mean ? Isn't a Chaos Lord some kind of God ? Will you rule over your own chaos plane ? Have your own minions ? Because Chaos Lords are who you deal with under the domnination skill after all.
5.) How do Occultism and Domination compare ? Because the one sells his souls or something to Chaos Lords to get some pets while the other one actually becomes a Chaos Lord himself ? Can you do both ?
6.) The Tutorial mentions lv 99 Players can transform into Dragons, awesome and changes a lot for me, but at lv 100 you will be a Dragon Lord ? What is that ? Just a bigger stronger type of Dragon ?
7.) I know this is something far far in the future, but how does a Dragon play ? Do you still have your class abilities ? Is it actually useful ? Or just for flying and boasting rights because becoming a Dragon doesn't really add to your power ? Like a Wizard who's spellpower isn't affected or cannot cast any spells while in Dragon form ? Would a Warrior-Dragon be stronger than a Wizard-Dragon ? Are all Dragons equal ?
8.) How is the gameplay of a Druid ? Caring for your grove sounds interesting, and the transformations as well. But some appear to be useless, quickly obsolete or just for roleplay purpose ? Like why become a nightingale when you already have a flying form with the owl ? And doesn't the Dragon transformation at the end make all your previous combat-transformations obsolete ?

And please please please don't tell me to "Just try it out" or something. Because I hate wasting my time and I don't have that much time for games to begin with. I get that some of the game is about wondering, mysteries and exploring, but I would be much more motivated by having a clear path ahead of me. Having an explanation in numbers as to what something does.

Thank you for your time, and I hope these questions are okay.

Isildion
 

Somebody is going to post an answer before me, but I'll try anyhow.

Welcome, please stay!

1) Necromancy is one of many 'aligned' skills. This means you owe allegiance to Mhaldor and the Evil Gods. You don't have to be a citizen there, but you must obey their laws or you will lose access to a number of skills. I'm an Infernal who is not part of Mhaldor, it's fun, but I am limited in my choices. For me it's not a problem, because the limitations are on things I don't do anyhow.

2) Sunlight is used for a lot of grove skills. You want to make a quarterstaff? It costs sunlight. You want to make a portal? Sunlight. It recharges, and isn't really an issue of 'running out' for the most part.

3) Domination is a skillet that only occultists get. Yeah, it's kind of a minion master. Each minion does different things. One might cause an affliction. One might let you teleport back to a home location, etc.

4) Occultism is tied directly with Domination. You will have to be of the occultist class to get either one. This is another 'aligned' class, with a focus on Chaos. Perhaps slightly less restrictive than Evil or Good, but there are still limitations. Chaos Lord is the final skill, and lets you 'avoid' death once every 6 hours. It will also let you get some semi-random boosts or debuffs. You might get bonus willpower regeneration and decreased strength and fire resistance, for example. This 'mog' can change every 6 hours if you would like it to.

5) If you have one, you have both. They are designed to work in tandem.

6) Dragon is currently 'disabled' as one other thread points out. This doesn't mean it won't come back. The difference between 99 and 100 is you get health and mana like you do from any other level advancement, as well as the ability to shout (kind of pointless). You can also get level 101, and 102, and 103, etc. The only further advantages are more health and mana and endurance and willpower and lessons, just as you get from any other advancement in level.

7) Dragon is an entire class. You lose access to your 'lesserform' skills when you are in dragon, but you can swap back and forth, it just takes a few seconds. Dragon combat is six of one, half a dozen of the other. It's pretty pointless, I have been lead to believe (I'm a dragon), in 1v1 fights. It is pretty awesome in group fights.

8) Druids are a somewhat aligned class in the same sense as Occultists. Their tie is to Nature, however. In my opinion, one of the main advantages of Druid is that you can make your own healing potions. I haven't heard anyone say that they're TOTES AWESOME BRO for combat or hunting, but they're alright. Druid does not have a dragon transformation, it is Wyvern. That being said, each morph has different powers. You want to freeze somebody AND breathe fire on them? Well that's why you have Icewyrm AND Wyvern, you just have to switch between the two.

I hope this helps, and as I said, please stay.

Keep coming back, it works if you work it?

Eilona

I can only answer a few of your questions but hopefully my responses will be helpful.

2) Your grove collects sunlight to use as energy for your grove abilities, such as resurrection of dead adventurers.

7) Dragon adventurers can switch between their lesser (original) and Dragon forms. When they are Dragons, they have the Dragon class and can't use their other class skills. No new Dragons are currently being created because of a world event and it's possible Dragons will be replaced with another end game reward.

8) Quite simply, the nightingale has different powers to the owl. You're right in that most of the forms become redundant as you learn better ones, but roleplay with forms would be interesting. I really enjoy playing a Druid because it's a great utility class.

Tanaar

Welcome to Achaea, @Isildion! There's a steep learning curve here, but it is highly rewarding once you acclimate. Most of your questions have to do with factional classes that I am not aligned with, so I won't be able to respond to them, and Rispok answered the rest admirably.

When it comes to choosing a class, you really have to consider your desired faction (Good, Evil, Chaos, Nature, numerous others of varyin degrees of neutrality), your desired play style (roleplaying, PVP combat, PVE bashing, politics, some combination of the above), and whether you like to be on a currently-dominant team or an underdog. Answer these questions, and people will have all kinds of often-conflicting advice about the best race/class/city/House combination.

Consider playing for Team Good! We're not currently offered right out of the newbie intro because of in-game events, but it's a very exciting time to be a good guy.

Also remember that even though some of us are taciturn, brusque, or downright hostile in-game, we're all pretty helpful out of character. The forums are a great place to go for advice

Isildion

Rispok said:

Welcome, please stay!

1) Necromancy is one of many 'aligned' skills. This means you owe allegiance to Mhaldor and the Evil Gods. You don't have to be a citizen there, but you must obey their laws or you will lose access to a number of skills. I'm an Infernal who is not part of Mhaldor, it's fun, but I am limited in my choices. For me it's not a problem, because the limitations are on things I don't do anyhow.

2) Sunlight is used for a lot of grove skills. You want to make a quarterstaff? It costs sunlight. You want to make a portal? Sunlight. It recharges, and isn't really an issue of 'running out' for the most part.

3) Domination is a skillet that only occultists get. Yeah, it's kind of a minion master. Each minion does different things. One might cause an affliction. One might let you teleport back to a home location, etc.

4) Occultism is tied directly with Domination. You will have to be of the occultist class to get either one. This is another 'aligned' class, with a focus on Chaos. Perhaps slightly less restrictive than Evil or Good, but there are still limitations. Chaos Lord is the final skill, and lets you 'avoid' death once every 6 hours. It will also let you get some semi-random boosts or debuffs. You might get bonus willpower regeneration and decreased strength and fire resistance, for example. This 'mog' can change every 6 hours if you would like it to.

5) If you have one, you have both. They are designed to work in tandem.

6) Dragon is currently 'disabled' as one other thread points out. This doesn't mean it won't come back. The difference between 99 and 100 is you get health and mana like you do from any other level advancement, as well as the ability to shout (kind of pointless). You can also get level 101, and 102, and 103, etc. The only further advantages are more health and mana and endurance and willpower and lessons, just as you get from any other advancement in level.

7) Dragon is an entire class. You lose access to your 'lesserform' skills when you are in dragon, but you can swap back and forth, it just takes a few seconds. Dragon combat is six of one, half a dozen of the other. It's pretty pointless, I have been lead to believe (I'm a dragon), in 1v1 fights. It is pretty awesome in group fights.

8) Druids are a somewhat aligned class in the same sense as Occultists. Their tie is to Nature, however. In my opinion, one of the main advantages of Druid is that you can make your own healing potions. I haven't heard anyone say that they're TOTES AWESOME BRO for combat or hunting, but they're alright. Druid does not have a dragon transformation, it is Wyvern. That being said, each morph has different powers. You want to freeze somebody AND breathe fire on them? Well that's why you have Icewyrm AND Wyvern, you just have to switch between the two.

I hope this helps, and as I said, please stay.

Keep coming back, it works if you work it?

  Thanks for your answers
But I do have some more questions about some answers.

1.) So how does necromancy play ? Apperantly you cannot summon undead minions, is that correct or am I overlooking something ? A necromancer without the undead is a bit strange. How useful is it ? What's it like ? And so on. Because choosing a class with necromancy as a skill does have a certain appeal for me. Even tho I'm really undecided as of now. Some way to become an undead yourself ? (Lich ?)

6-8.) Aww bummer about the Dragons, but on the other hand this raises my interest in a class with metamorphosis since it's the only way to become a "pseudo-dragon". Do you have have any experience with that maybe ? You mentioned the Druid isn't that good when it comes to combat or hunting, but shouldn't he be pretty competent when being transformed into an appropiate animal ? A wyvern should be pretty bad@ss in battle.

And yeah you've helped a lot so far

atm I'm undecided between the Apostat / Occultist and Sentinel / Druid , so I would be grateful for thoughts and opinions on these classes.

Tanaar

Necromancy isn't about undead, it's about tampering with the forces of life and death. In most other games, that's limited by a focus on undead. Here, it's about cheating death, manipulating it's energies, hordeing life force, etc.

If your goal is to become a Dragon, it can be done. It's a huge bitch of a task to manage, but it's been done by a substantial minority of the playerbase. Once you make it to Dragon, consider your goals of badassery achieved.

Aerek

Rispok answered pretty well, but I'll tackle it, too.

1) Necromancy doesn't involve undead, really, it's the manipulation of life energy to make yourself immortal or give yourself other super-human powers. The pinnacle of the skill is instantly resurrecting yourself upon death. As Rispok mentioned, it's a skill closely tied to the City of Evil, so unless you're playing a Mhaldorian, life can get complicated.

2) Sunlight is used for a variety of Grove skills, it's like a second "mana pool" that you draw from to use your abilities.

3, 4, & 5) Rispok nailed it, really. Domination works by making "contracts" with other-worldly aliens for minions that each have their own special effects. You can have any or all of them at once, but the contracts can be expensive depending on your time and playstyle. Occultism is more about your manipulation of Chaos energy that permeates the world, using it to empower yourself and harm your foes. Becoming a Chaos Lord as a mortal alters your character to give you certain bonuses or penalties to stats, resistances, and other traits. As Rispok mentioned, both Domination and Occultism are skills of the Occultist class, they go hand-in hand. There's a lot more to both of them, but the roleplay that surrounds the Occultist class is pretty deep, and keeping some of those details as secret as possible is one of the major parts of the role. If you're just wondering about the play-style of the class, think of a Pokemon master with technicolor, Lovecraftian Chaos magic with a reliance on chance and focus on secrecy/escape abilities.

6 & 7) "Greater Dragon" and "Dragon Lord" are just the names for levels 99 and 100, 99 being where you get access to Dragonform. Dragonform, itself, is a separate "class" (Like Rispok said, you lose access to your lesserform abilities while you're in Dragonform) filled with a "greatest hits" of utility and combat abilities, as well as boosting all of your stats (STR, DEX, CON, INT) to far greater levels than most character races. Different colors of Dragons have different breath weapons, but they're identical aside from that. Being a Dragon is pretty good all around, you have a lot of coveted utility abilities, and the combat is both easy and powerful in all combat situations, you just hear the top-notch combatants complain about trying to kill other top-notch combatants with it.

8) Druid is an interesting class that I think is a lot of fun for new players. Groves gives you a lot of toys to play with, and your own unique location for your "grove" so you feel tied to the game and the world a little more than most classes. To answer your question about Metamorphosis, each morph has its own abilities, though there is some overlap, so you go into different morphs for different things. For example, Eagle and Nightengale can both fly, but Eagle can instantly fly to any player's location, where Nightengale can sing to produce a powerful defensive barrier. Once you've mastered the skill, you can switch morphs near-instantly, so you can cycle through them quickly during a fight to use each morph's strengths and abilities as you need them.

Rispok

Isildion said:

Thanks for your answers
But I do have some more questions about some answers.

1.) So how does necromancy play ? Apperantly you cannot summon undead minions, is that correct or am I overlooking something ? A necromancer without the undead is a bit strange. How useful is it ? What's it like ? And so on. Because choosing a class with necromancy as a skill does have a certain appeal for me. Even tho I'm really undecided as of now. Some way to become an undead yourself ? (Lich ?)

6-8.) Aww bummer about the Dragons, but on the other hand this raises my interest in a class with metamorphosis since it's the only way to become a "pseudo-dragon". Do you have have any experience with that maybe ? You mentioned the Druid isn't that good when it comes to combat or hunting, but shouldn't he be pretty competent when being transformed into an appropiate animal ? A wyvern should be pretty bad@ss in battle.

And yeah you've helped a lot so far

atm I'm undecided between the Apostat / Occultist and Sentinel / Druid , so I would be grateful for thoughts and opinions on these classes.

1) You don't really have undead minions, no. There are some skills like gravehands that will prevent others from easily leaving the room you summon them in, and infestation, which makes maggots burrow into their brain, causing some afflictions. The last skill in Necromancy is similar to Chaos Lord, in that you 'negate' death once per 6 hours at most. It does not provide you with the boons/debuffs associated with chaos lords, however. When I made Rispok I chose to be Infernal because it was one of the classes I knew the least about, and it seemed like it would be very good for PvE, which is my preference. It's very useful, I'd say, and has some quite awesome powers. Putrefaction is one of my favourites. At a constant drain of health, you can basically increase your armour.

6-8) I didn't say it's not that good, I just said it's not considered to be incredibly amazing, as some other classes are. This shouldn't deter you in any way, however. As for dragon... Well, don't worry about it for now. It takes a very long time and a huge degree of dedication.

Isildion

Tanaar said:

Welcome to Achaea, @Isildion! There's a steep learning curve here, but it is highly rewarding once you acclimate. Most of your questions have to do with factional classes that I am not aligned with, so I won't be able to respond to them, and Rispok answered the rest admirably. When it comes to choosing a class, you really have to consider your desired faction (Good, Evil, Chaos, Nature, numerous others of varyin degrees of neutrality), your desired play style (roleplaying, PVP combat, PVE bashing, politics, some combination of the above), and whether you like to be on a currently-dominant team or an underdog. Answer these questions, and people will have all kinds of often-conflicting advice about the best race/class/city/House combination. Consider playing for Team Good! We're not currently offered right out of the newbie intro because of in-game events, but it's a very exciting time to be a good guy. Also remember that even though some of us are taciturn, brusque, or downright hostile in-game, we're all pretty helpful out of character. The forums are a great place to go for advice

Necromancy isn't about undead, it's about tampering with the forces of life and death. In most other games, that's limited by a focus on undead. Here, it's about cheating death, manipulating it's energies, hordeing life force, etc.

If your goal is to become a Dragon, it can be done. It's a huge bitch of a task to manage, but it's been done by a substantial minority of the playerbase. Once you make it to Dragon, consider your goals of badassery achieved.

I'm not sure on what side to play, but I'm usually more of an chaotic neutral person (when going with DnD alignments), but I will consider your suggestion of becoming a good guy.
As for my playstyle, I guess I like teamwork and PvE more, I like roleplaying but I'm not that good at it since so far I've only played in pretty relaxed RP enviroments (where it's okay to talk about game mechanics and stuff while still be in character for example). And since I'm a new player I guess I would prefer to be on the dominant team, I imagine that to be easier. I would propably be a terrible politician xD


And thanks for all the great help so far


Eilona Thank you too, good to hear the Druid is an enjoyable class

Sena

My responses in bold.

Isildion said:

1.) How is the gameplay of being a Necromancer (focus on necromancy skill) ? Looking at the skill description it seems that commanding undead is actually a pretty small part of it. (Actually none at all it seems ?)
Commanding undead isn't a part of necromancy at all. Necromancy in Achaea is more about the manipulation of life essence. Also, you generally don't focus on a single skill (though you may focus on learning one before another), mastering all class skills and several general skills is something most people do fairly quickly as a prerequisite for serious combat. As for the gameplay, that depends on which necromancy class you choose. Infernals are knights, wearing heavy armour and primarily fighting with two swords. Apostates are demon summoners, primarily commanding baalzadeens, but also using several lesser demons. Apostates also use evileye for cursing and afflicting enemies.

2.) When playing a Druid, what does your grove collect sunlight for ?
Most grove abilities require and consume a certain amount of sunlight energy, so it acts as a limit to how often you can use powerful abilities.

3.) How is the gameplay experience of a "Dominator" (focus on domination skill) ? It does sound like you will be a minion master. What are the rules for that ? (How many minions ?) What kinds of "pets" do you get ? The skills only decribe with what Chaos Lord you bargain but not what you get or offer.
An occultist will summon a large number of chaos entities (I think 18 different kinds, only one of each at a time). You travel to the Chaos Plane and make pacts with the Chaos Lords, allowing you to summon their respective entity a certain number of times. Most of the entities simply attack enemies in various ways, you just tell them who to attack. Other uses are forcing an enemy to do something against their will, transporting you back to a certain location, defending you from attacks, acting as a flying mount, and a few other things.

4.) How is the gameplay of someone that focuses on the Occultism skill ? Because the final entry says you will become a Chaos Lord. What does that mean ? Isn't a Chaos Lord some kind of God ? Will you rule over your own chaos plane ? Have your own minions ? Because Chaos Lords are who you deal with under the domnination skill after all.
Many of the occultism abilities require and consume karma, which is a resource that's gained by studying karma items that are found in various places (though members of the Occultist house have a slightly different method of gaining karma). Becoming a Chaos Lord (or Lady) isn't really a huge change, in terms of game mechanics. You activate the ability, and then when you next die, you return to life and get several random mutations which can give various positive and negative effects, and alter your appearance. You can always die again to get different mutations.

5.) How do Occultism and Domination compare ? Because the one sells his souls or something to Chaos Lords to get some pets while the other one actually becomes a Chaos Lord himself ? Can you do both ?
Like I said above, you don't focus on a single class skill, so an occultist will eventually master both domination and occultism.

6.) The Tutorial mentions lv 99 Players can transform into Dragons, awesome and changes a lot for me, but at lv 100 you will be a Dragon Lord ? What is that ? Just a bigger stronger type of Dragon ?
Dragon Lord is just a title, there are no additional benefits aside from the usual benefits of a higher level. You can also continue to gain levels beyond 100.

7.) I know this is something far far in the future, but how does a Dragon play ? Do you still have your class abilities ? Is it actually useful ? Or just for flying and boasting rights because becoming a Dragon doesn't really add to your power ? Like a Wizard who's spellpower isn't affected or cannot cast any spells while in Dragon form ? Would a Warrior-Dragon be stronger than a Wizard-Dragon ? Are all Dragons equal ?
You can transform at will between your dragon form and normal form. Dragon is an entirely separate race and class, so you lose access to your normal class skills and gain dragon abilities instead. It's very useful for both PvP and PvE, and has a lot of useful non-combat abilities as well. It should be noted that, due to a recent event, it's not currently possible to become a dragon. It's unknown for the moment whether it will be possible again or something new will take its place at level 99, but there will definitely be something there by the time you reach that level.

8.) How is the gameplay of a Druid ? Caring for your grove sounds interesting, and the transformations as well. But some appear to be useless, quickly obsolete or just for roleplay purpose ? Like why become a nightingale when you already have a flying form with the owl ? And doesn't the Dragon transformation at the end make all your previous combat-transformations obsolete ?
Metamorphosis doesn't involve actually becoming an animal, it's more of a spiritual transformation with the aid of an animal spirit. Each morph has different powers. Some do quickly become obsolete, but many have unique powers that make them always useful. Nightingale, for example, allows you to create a powerful barrier that protects you from most attacks, which is something owl (or any other morph) can't do. Wyvern doesn't make everything before it obsolete, there are still several things it can't do.
 

Iocun

Personally I always found necromancy to be a bit underdeveloped, flavour-wise. That isn't to say the skill itself doesn't have a cool flavour - it has some of the most awesome looking abilities, but there simply isn't any real necromantic faction in Achaea. Mhaldor is the home for necromancers, but Mhaldor isn't much about life/death/undeath; it's about evil, which is something completely different. Maybe there's more actual necromancy-focus going on in Mhaldor or, say, the Congregation that I realize, but if it is, it's not visible from the outside. I think there's still some huge untapped potential for necromancy RP in Achaea.

Druids are perfectly good enough for hunting. They currently have some flaws in PvP, but they aren't useless. No Achaean class really is.

Zeon

Druid and occultist are far easier to jump into than apostate or sentinel in my opinion. They've got more utility at early and high levels and don't have entire skill sets dedicated to pk.

Isildion

Aerek said:

Rispok answered pretty well, but I'll tackle it, too.

1) Necromancy doesn't involve undead, really, it's the manipulation of life energy to make yourself immortal or give yourself other super-human powers. The pinnacle of the skill is instantly resurrecting yourself upon death. As Rispok mentioned, it's a skill closely tied to the City of Evil, so unless you're playing a Mhaldorian, life can get complicated.

2) Sunlight is used for a variety of Grove skills, it's like a second "mana pool" that you draw from to use your abilities.

3, 4, & 5) Rispok nailed it, really. Domination works by making "contracts" with other-worldly aliens for minions that each have their own special effects. You can have any or all of them at once, but the contracts can be expensive depending on your time and playstyle. Occultism is more about your manipulation of Chaos energy that permeates the world, using it to empower yourself and harm your foes. Becoming a Chaos Lord as a mortal alters your character to give you certain bonuses or penalties to stats, resistances, and other traits. As Rispok mentioned, both Domination and Occultism are skills of the Occultist class, they go hand-in hand. There's a lot more to both of them, but the roleplay that surrounds the Occultist class is pretty deep, and keeping some of those details as secret as possible is one of the major parts of the role. If you're just wondering about the play-style of the class, think of a Pokemon master with technicolor, Lovecraftian Chaos magic with a reliance on chance and focus on secrecy/escape abilities.

6 & 7) "Greater Dragon" and "Dragon Lord" are just the names for levels 99 and 100, 99 being where you get access to Dragonform. Dragonform, itself, is a separate "class" (Like Rispok said, you lose access to your lesserform abilities while you're in Dragonform) filled with a "greatest hits" of utility and combat abilities, as well as boosting all of your stats (STR, DEX, CON, INT) to far greater levels than most character races. Different colors of Dragons have different breath weapons, but they're identical aside from that. Being a Dragon is pretty good all around, you have a lot of coveted utility abilities, and the combat is both easy and powerful in all combat situations, you just hear the top-notch combatants complain about trying to kill other top-notch combatants with it.

8) Druid is an interesting class that I think is a lot of fun for new players. Groves gives you a lot of toys to play with, and your own unique location for your "grove" so you feel tied to the game and the world a little more than most classes. To answer your question about Metamorphosis, each morph has its own abilities, though there is some overlap, so you go into different morphs for different things. For example, Eagle and Nightengale can both fly, but Eagle can instantly fly to any player's location, where Nightengale can sing to produce a powerful defensive barrier. Once you've mastered the skill, you can switch morphs near-instantly, so you can cycle through them quickly during a fight to use each morph's strengths and abilities as you need them.

Thanks for your answers, but a few more questions.

3-5.) You've mentioned the "cost" of making these deals with chaos lords, what exactly do you offer up for these powers ? You've also mentioned my time and playstyle are a factor, how so ? Because that sounds like a pretty major thing.

8.) Yeah exactly, I like the idea of having "my" little place in the world. Sounds pretty interesting and a good way to learn the game slowly at my own pace.

Also, while becoming a Dragon by default on lv 99 has been eliminated some of you mention that you can still become a dragon, only that it's not an easy thing to do. Could you outline for me what would be necessary ? No need to go deeply into detail, just some short "Oh you need to do XYZ and that's incredibly hard even with the help of many others high-level players" or something.
And since the normal classes are considered "lesserforms" while the Dragon, as I assume, would be a "higherform", are there others ?

Sena

Isildion said:
As for my playstyle, I guess I like teamwork and PvE more

Something to note, PvE in Achaea doesn't really involve teamwork, it's mostly done alone. There are certain powerful denizens that can require multiple people to take down, but most of the time hunting is a rather single-player activity. You can hunt in groups, but it's usually less effective than being on your own.

Zeon

Isildion said:

8.) Yeah exactly, I like the idea of having "my" little place in the world. Sounds pretty interesting and a good way to learn the game slowly at my own pace.

Yeah my first ever character was of the Sylvan class (another class that uses groves) and that was a big part of why I ended up sticking around and playing all these years. There is something nice about having a room that you're extra powerful in and can kind of control. Groves have been changed since I started playing, but you still maintain a fair amount of utility and control when within them.

Iocun

Dragon: it is currently impossible to become a dragon. However, it seems likely that it will either be made possible again in due time (which means: probably much earlier than you could level up to dragon anyways), or that instead of dragon something different will be made available at high levels. But we simply cannot say at the moment, so I wouldn't get too fixed on the "I must become a dragon" idea.

I think when Tanaar said that "it can be done", he simply meant that dragonhood, as it used to work, and as it might be made to work again, is a very hard to reach goal anyways, but attainable. But it still isn't possible right now.

"Lesserform" is just a short form of referring to the class a dragon-level player has when he's not in "dragonform". There are no other "forms" like this, no.

Isildion

Sena said:

My responses in bold.

8.) Metamorphosis doesn't involve actually becoming an animal, it's more of a spiritual transformation with the aid of an animal spirit. Each morph has different powers. Some do quickly become obsolete, but many have unique powers that make them always useful. Nightingale, for example, allows you to create a powerful barrier that protects you from most attacks, which is something owl (or any other morph) can't do. Wyvern doesn't make everything before it obsolete, there are still several things it can't do.
 

That's a bit discouraging, but how does that work ? Like when you "metamorph" into an owl, I guess you would gain the ability to fly ? Do wings grow out of your back ? Can you just fly like Superman ?
A bit sad that you cannot really become the animal in question, but I guess Druid is still pretty good.

@Zeon: Thanks, that makes it easier. Now I just have to decide between Occultist and Druid.

@Sena: Thanks, that is a pretty important thing to know, but I'm fine with that. I'm not completly uninterested in PvP or being useful to a group in other ways.

Delphinus

You've mentioned the "cost" of making these deals with chaos lords, what exactly do you offer up for these powers?
Occultists bargain with the Chaos Lords using karma, which is a personal attribute. You build it up by studying special items dropped by certain NPCs.

Also, while becoming a Dragon by default on lv 99 has been eliminated some of you mention that you can still become a dragon, only that it's not an easy thing to do. Could you outline for me what would be necessary?
This is a bit complex. Previously, anyone who reached level 99 was visited by Ashaxei, the White Dragon, who granted them the ability to transform into a dragon. Ashaxei recently died in a very large event, though, and she hasn't been replaced just yet. When people said that becoming a dragon was difficult, they were talking about reaching level 99 at all.

And since the normal classes are considered "lesserforms" while the Dragon, as I assume, would be a "higherform", are there others?
No, dragon is the only one with this distinction. It's basically a prestige class/race that you can change to and from at will.

Delphinus

Isildion said:

That's a bit discouraging, but how does that work ? Like when you "metamorph" into an owl, I guess you would gain the ability to fly ? Do wings grow out of your back ? Can you just fly like Superman ?
A bit sad that you cannot really become the animal in question, but I guess Druid is still pretty good.

Metamorphosis is like this, but with animals instead of a big glowy sword-guy:



It's necessary because if you transformed into the animal, it'd be impossible to explain how you wield weapons, ride a horse, and do various other things.

Isildion

Delphinus said:

Isildion said:

That's a bit discouraging, but how does that work ? Like when you "metamorph" into an owl, I guess you would gain the ability to fly ? Do wings grow out of your back ? Can you just fly like Superman ?
A bit sad that you cannot really become the animal in question, but I guess Druid is still pretty good.

Metamorphosis is like this, but with animals instead of a big glowy sword-guy:



It's necessary because if you transformed into the animal, it'd be impossible to explain how you wield weapons, ride a horse, and do various other things.

I just thought that it would be impossible to ride and that your stuff just merges or is ignored in favor of fixed stats based on your level or something.
But it does make sense.
I guess it's not so bad, do you actually see this "animal spirit aura" ingame ? Or is it invisible ? And can you fly with these "spirit wings" in the case of a wyvern or something ?

Eilona

When you morph, everyone sees the spirit overlap you and when you enter and leave rooms, people can tell which spirit you've bonded with. You can fly with you spirit wings and maul with your spirit claws!

edit: Maul, not mail. Claws are for attacking, not for post!

Sena

Isildion said:
I guess it's not so bad, do you actually see this "animal spirit aura" ingame ? Or is it invisible ? And can you fly with these "spirit wings" in the case of a wyvern or something ?

It's rarely mentioned, but presumably visible. Each morph does give unique entry/exit messages, but those mostly refer to things like behaviour and how you carry yourself. The only real example I can think of, other than the message when you morph, is a mention of "near invisible wings" in one ability. You can fly and do other normally impossible things like breathing fire/ice and burrowing through the ground.

Isildion

Eilona said:

When you morph, everyone sees the spirit overlap you and when you enter and leave rooms, people can tell which spirit you've bonded with. You can fly with you spirit wings and mail with your spirit claws!

Hm this actually sounds pretty awesome xD

Rajan

Starting out on the 'losing' side can actually be more beneficial, I think. It gives you the chance to learn new things while the people teaching you are building themselves up in the process, so you both get to benefit from it. Like with Mhaldor, the population was pretty much no existent when I started Rajan, but as I grew him and learned how to fight, act, etc., the whole Bal'met event happened. Extremely fun, difficult, and very rewarding experience to have gone through as a younger character. And when Shallam eventually rebuilds and begins accepting new players in Houses and such, you literally have no where to go but up.

Don't discount the losing side, just because they are losing at the moment. Even Ashtan was losing at one point. Look at them now.

This is regarding the preference to being on the 'dominant team' comment, obviously. Phone typing is slow typing.

Tanaar

Regarding dominant vs weak factions:

Think about when you played king of the hill on the playground as a kid. Did you prefer being on top but with your dominance constantly threatened, or being the one plotting to take them down?

I've played Achaea for 10 (real) years. Each and every major faction has enjoyed multiple periods of dominance, multiple nadirs. Right now, Ashtan/Chaos is on top, Team Good is enjoying a resurgence/renaissance, Team Evil is at a bit of a low point of manpower given some recent defections, and Team Nature...honestly I don't know where they're at. @Delphinus can do a better assessment of his faction than I can.

Personally, I enjoy rebuilding and the rise to pre-eminence more than actually being on top. That, along with clear bias, is why I suggested Team Good. Under two new and zealous gods and with an entire city to rebuild, there's huge opportunity to have real and lasting effect on the game.

Arador

But seeing how the factions on top show restraint instead of constantly curbstomping those below them, all this does not really matter. You can enjoy playing anywhere.

Kakotas

Isildion said:

Sena said:

My responses in bold.

8.) Metamorphosis doesn't involve actually becoming an animal, it's more of a spiritual transformation with the aid of an animal spirit. Each morph has different powers. Some do quickly become obsolete, but many have unique powers that make them always useful. Nightingale, for example, allows you to create a powerful barrier that protects you from most attacks, which is something owl (or any other morph) can't do. Wyvern doesn't make everything before it obsolete, there are still several things it can't do.
 

That's a bit discouraging, but how does that work ? Like when you "metamorph" into an owl, I guess you would gain the ability to fly ? Do wings grow out of your back ? Can you just fly like Superman ?
A bit sad that you cannot really become the animal in question, but I guess Druid is still pretty good.

@Zeon: Thanks, that makes it easier. Now I just have to decide between Occultist and Druid.

@Sena: Thanks, that is a pretty important thing to know, but I'm fine with that. I'm not completly uninterested in PvP or being useful to a group in other ways.

@Isildion Druid is a pretty interesting gameplay. Also Consider sylvan if you like having "pets" they have more "ents" which are pets due to their access to elementalism and are pretty awesome at hunting for dragon. Plus you still get groves and transform into a "Viridian". Just a thought. Take some time to get to know the nature factions play styles. There are a lot of them.

Mannimar

I play an Occultist. I'm in a uniqueish position RP wise though... I play as a Rogue, well rogue by Occultist definition which is anybody not in the Occultist House. The House is secretive, powerful, and elite. They disdain anybody of the class who isn't them. Most people who attempt something like this typically don't succeed in becoming very well known. I think one of the most successful rogue Occultists is Xadzia. She is a prominent figure in both her House and city, and has a strong history in Ashtan. 

If you look to play as a rogue Occie, there is a line you'll want to find between being a threat and being irrelevant. That is one of the hardest parts, but it will earn their begrudging tolerance of your existence (and interesting conflicts). Become too much of a threat and you'll die, Be irrelevant and they'll laugh at you. 

Being in a position where I've butted heads with Amunet IC, I would have to say that even though I've never been in the House they have a very strong and intriguing history and roleplay. I also know from my House that the Occultist House is very strict and holds high expectations of their novices. Though I'm sure they'll work with a trubie like yourself, but you may have some struggles meeting their bar. 

The roleplay of either style of Occultist can be difficult, but it is among the most intriguing and fun that I have had with any class. It has a deep and flavourful history, and the skills of the class have some of the most gratifying feelings when acquired or combat strategies that succeed. 

In our skill, Occultism we have the ability to reduce incoming damage and mana usage, we can cheat death by mutating our bodies into monstrous forms, all through our understanding and manipulation of karma, and karmic auras.

In Domination we can summon 19 entities, one is immediately used and transports us to a different plane of existence, and one is used to transport us to the room it was summoned in. The rest are all used to increase combat potential, so you literally are going into battle with an army of 17 followers. 

The skill of Tarot is perhaps our most versatile skillset, and was either stolen from or taught to us by the Jesters. This ability increases our survivability a lot through abilities that increase health or mana (by 25%), or an ability that cures 3 random afflictions. Tarot also allows for abilities to travel, throw meteors at people, slow people, tie them up, and make them do your bidding.

There is an ability that Occultists and Necromancers have that allows them to disappear almost perfectly, and move past obstacles and away from danger. 

This was more information then you asked for, but I hope that helped more than it confused you!

Sidonia

I've been through probably a dozen characters in my time in Achaea, and tried every class at least once, and I've found as you learn more about all of the classes (even if it's just getting killed by someone or being friends with someone else of a different class) some of them just stand out to you and kind of pull you in. That comes with time mostly. Your first character's first class doesn't have to be forever, there are options.

Tvistor

Classchange expensive.

Or I'd be an infernal/monk.

Arador

Tvistor said:

Classchange expensive.

Or I'd be an infernal/monk.

Go Infernal! We can talk financing options. Minimal kneecap breaking assured.