Okay! So, I've been gathering my resources, and now I'm more looking for a seasoned opinion. Or several, really.
1.) I'm probably going to be mixing Influencing/Bashing, as I don't want getting to Demi to be too tedious and droll. So saying, here's the route that I currently do (I'm nearly level 80)
A.) Kill all of the Orcs in Shallach
B.) Kill all of the fishers and the Gravediggers in the Broadcast Centre
C.) Influence all of the Illithoids in the UV Prison
Now, I've been told to do Kephera, but I don't know which Hive everyone's referring me to, as everyone says that Kephera are the best way to Influence to Demi, and that Illithoids are a good back-up.
If this is true, has everyone been referring to a specific one, or...? However, if anyone can offer me a better route, or explain WHY Influencing solo to Demi/Bashing solo to Demi is better, I'd love to hear it.
2.) Lately, I've noticed that I desperately need more Charisma. As it is, I can only get up to fourteen with Populus and Netzach. Again, I was told that making a Throne costs about 125K (which, last time I checked, it was closer to 50K, but eck) Now, if that's true, and Influencing is my major way to gold, is it better for me to Influence and sell esteem with my low Charisma to afford that (since it'll take longer to Influence a mob than it will be to bash), or is it better to bash, as I've a much higher Intellect (16)?
3.) I've heard people say that humans are amazing with their experience bonus, and I've heard others say that it's not worth it once you reach 80 or so. Is this true? And, if so, I've been considering reincarnating into something like Tae'Dae or Loboshigaru; I [i]despise[/i] being squishy. I absolutely, positively, [i]hate[/i] it. That said, I know that Lobo would screw me over for Influencing, and Tae'dae would mess me up for regular bashing; though I don't know how much Intellect plays into my Symbol/DemonWeb and all that.
4.) Now, bashing the other day, I was told to use DemonWeb instead of Cosmicfire or Symbol. Is there any solid way to determine when I should use Demonweb over Symbol? I recall there being a command that'd tell you what a creature is resistant to, but I rather forget it. It's not probe or con, as far as I've been able to tell.
Finally, here's my skill list, just so everyone knows
Common Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Combat Capable Melee
Resilience Inept Fitness
Discernment Expert Intellect
Highmagic Virtuoso Arcana
Planar Expert Mysticism
Discipline Adept Willpower
Environment Novice Communion
Influence Fabled Magnetism
Dramatics Apprentice Performance
Arts Capable Finearts
Beastmastery Inept Magnetism
Aethercraft Adept Mysticism
Trade Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Enchantment Transcendent Arcana
Spellcraft
Guild Skills Rank Pool
------------- ------------ ------------
Rituals Transcendent Arcana
Necromancy
Cosmic Mythical Mysticism
Nihilism
Tarot Adept Willpower
Answers
Thrones require 1250 commodities. They are worth getting, whatever the cost. I am not really sure what to tell you about how to raise the gold - it's pretty easy to come by whatever route you take. You could save by shopping around for cheaper comms. Also, use a karmic beauty blessing.
When people refer to the kephera, they're referring to all the hives. A couple are bigger than the others, but people just go from one to the next. The kephera workers are weak to charity, and can be a decent source of gold.
It is just PROBE to view mobs' weaknesses and resistances.
Vive l'apostrophe!
Archliches are weird, they don't get a spammable attack at trans.
Anyway Jasted, you have my sympathies for playing probably the worst class in the game to level up as a basher. Nihilists have crap damage attacks, very situational, limited mitigation (Putrefaction is far better for Knights, even after several envoys on it) and a racial association in Viscanti that helps little because :lolViscanti:
Taking that fact aside, the reason many people suggest influencing at 80-95 is because the bashing areas for those levels are either too painful or too little exp, your crit rate is low, and you can pop an ikon and just influence the crap out of allsorts. Kephera, Illithoid, Chancel, Asylum and towards the latter end Lirangsha and Forsaken.
Throne is an optional for you, another is using Karma beauty, as it's +2 weighted to your Charisma stat. Selling esteem should get you the income needed to afford a throne, also make use of wetfold origami, they'll help your ego regeneration and increase the amount of esteem you generate.
Are you in an Order? Empower your God's realm. It's good experience and esteem and you'll get a Health/Mana/Ego boost for your troubles.
Being squishy is par for the course, if you're going through somewhere dangerous, pop putrefaction, make sure you've got a health bonus up (also if you've no constitution bonuses at all, eat a constitution platter for the +1 con stat). As far as a race goes, you can never really go wrong with Faeling, especially if you take the influencing route. You'll be tough enough to farm elemental for essence, doing so should generate Ikons which you can consume for influence xp bonuses.
Also remember if you have the right performances in dramatics, you can the strength of your influencing attacks, also invest in scents (Dragonsblood, Vanilla, Sandalwood etc.) and when you do get a beast, train them to improve your various influences.
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
Nihilist is always squishy. Female keph or Master Viscanti are decent tanky caster races.
Symbol strike is a stronger attack for Nihilists than cosmicfire, by far, UNLESS the mob is extremely resistant to the damage type, in which case, go with demonweb. FYI Symbol strike is 100% excorable damage, and demonweb is 50% poison 50% psychic, so you should choose based on what you are attacking first.
Viscanti charisma is pretty damned sucky, but it's doable. Slow and tedious, but doable. If you're considering changing your race and ever want to be involved in PK, I encourage you to speak to the likes of Silvanus/Daedalion/Thoros first or you may make a horrible horrible mistake.
Get a throne. You're a d'Murani, hit your Dad up for a loan or flutter your eyes at rich aunt Lavinya, we can't let our own live like paupers *scoff*. I did a lot of influencing on my trek to demi, you just have to get as much benefit as you can - throne, trans influencing, dramatics, wetfold, oil, karma blessing, always keep up fortuna and netzach, etc. If you're not enemied you can influnce kephera (any and all hives) just the same you would illithoid.
There's a post here somewhere with good locations for bashing and influencing for your level, you should take a look for it!
Wump for pk!
And to my knowledge Ikons aren't stackable. I may be misinformed on this however if anyone can absolutely confirm otherwise.
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
Charisma affects influence speed and strength, which means higher always means better. There's no need to go all the way to 25 (not that anyone can) - 17-18 is decent enough for the casual influencer, whereas 20-21 can possibly compete with bashing speed up to something like level 90+ in terms of exp over time. Past 90, your crit rate almost always ensures bashing will be faster. All the more if you get enough lessons in discipline for damageshift.
Similarly for int, a higher int helps a lot, but you really only need 17-18 to hit decently hard enough. If you can get 20-21, you'll hit hard, of course, but not so much more that you'll be twice as fast or anything ridiculous like that.
The real speed boosts for the push to demi are crits and exp bonuses. The clincher in lusternia is that exp bonuses can be stacked. So if you can get goldentonics, a truefavour, golden lips, lowmagic spring and human race, and you stack them all together, you'll notice a great difference. You don't get access to lowmagic, of course, but you get access to that darkchant something that boosts exp, iirc. Farm and carefully save a couple of achievement bonuses will go a looong way too. (Ie. kill 999 rats, influence 999 units, then pop both achievements at the same time to get stacked exp bonuses).
Note that ikons can give you up to 200% exp bonus (only affects influencing, though) that stacks with all the abovementioned ones, which makes influencing to demigod actually a very viable strategy to take. With the right stacking and the right routine, it can actually be faster than bashing.
tl;dr - your race doesn't actually matter that much, as long as you can get to the sweet spot of 17-18 for whichever stat you are using. Once there, just invest in some exp boosts and a few bags of coffee.
For your race, remember there are race hats, so pick something for which the stats suit you and get a hat if need be. Others have given good advice in regards to which race you might pick. I would say pick something that isn't human, they are good initially but since you did not start as them pick something that will last you through endgame. Unless you want to buy a dagger later down the line.
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Honestly, if you are smart about what you hunt, wump is all around the best choice. High int and crazy fast eq. As long as you are smart and careful, you can bash quicker than any other race. You may have to be more careful than you would as an illithoid, but you'll outpace illithoids/viscanti/whatever by a fair margin.
Just don't get involved in pk as a wump until you're a buffed up demi. You'll get eaten alive.
It's really one of those scenarios where what's good levelling and what's good at endgame are two different kettle of fish.
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
Wumps are fine at leveling pre-demi. Requires slightly more thought and caution because you're squishy, but still much better than any other race.
Nihilist wump with enough levels can clear kephera just fine as long as they avoid the guard clumps. Luckily they aren't aggro so it's easy.
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
I got demi before the age of lips and ikons, and personally hate influencing. I think I have less than 1000 influences since Lusternia started tracking killed and influenced mobs. BACK IN MY DAY!
So I have no idea. I just know Mugwump is the most bang for your back if you want to powerbash.
Mob Influences: 2,864
Damn liar.
My divinus whip is awesome. Really must get that customisation done.