New Player

Kiskan · January 2015

I'm new to Lusternia, but I've played Achaea, and I love Imperian. Lusternia is really interesting, and I like what I see of my guild and city, but it sounds like knight is actually a fairly complex class, and I know my limitations, so I've been advised that Bard or Druid might be for me, and a switch of race to Mugwump or Aslaran. If I do switch professions, I'll have to switch guilds (which is unfortunate from what I've seen so far), and I may even have to switch cities (which is also unfortunate). I'd done my homework as best as I could, and Glomdoring seemed to have something of PKer population, and a relaxed atmosphere that didn't take itself too seriously, without being ridiculous snugglebunnies. Kind of perfect, really. Hallifax sounds like it could take itself really seriously, for example, because cities that are defined the way that one is generally can't help but be very intense, have people who take their e-rank incredibly seriously, and just generally tend to be offputting for all but a very particular kind of player (but I can't really know, of course). One of the other cities seemed to be a bit too snugglebunny (but again, I'm reading descriptions and snippets on forums). Anyway, what are the other cities and guilds I might think of joining if I have to move - both within Glomdoring (which does seem to have a bard and druid guild), and beyond? What do you think of those classes for someone who doesn't want to be overwhelmed by complexity?

Shaddus · January 2015

Tae'dae make slow but strong bards, don't let people tell you otherwise.

Knight combat IS expensive to excel at in terms of investment. For group combat and unless you're bound and determined to be on top, not so much.

When I get home from work I'll try to answer some of these, and others will have as well.

Alaksanteri · January 2015

Whatever guild you decided to join, the players are usually happy to help you get immersed in the universe. I heard Celest, Serenwilde, Gaudiguch and Hallifax are best for beginners but if you really want to rp with us, you should be well-accepted. Every guild has a certain level of lore and skills complexity. You should go with what you find the most interesting to play with. You will start as a student in any organization and you will be given a chance to start somewhere.

Welcome!

Elanorwen · January 2015

Kiskan said:

I'm new to Lusternia, but I've played Achaea, and I love Imperian. Lusternia is really interesting, and I like what I see of my guild and city, but it sounds like knight is actually a fairly complex class, and I know my limitations, so I've been advised that Bard or Druid might be for me, and a switch of race to Mugwump or Aslaran. If I do switch professions, I'll have to switch guilds (which is unfortunate from what I've seen so far), and I may even have to switch cities (which is also unfortunate). I'd done my homework as best as I could, and Glomdoring seemed to have something of PKer population, and a relaxed atmosphere that didn't take itself too seriously, without being ridiculous snugglebunnies. Kind of perfect, really. Hallifax sounds like it could take itself really seriously, for example, because cities that are defined the way that one is generally can't help but be very intense, have people who take their e-rank incredibly seriously, and just generally tend to be offputting for all but a very particular kind of player (but I can't really know, of course). One of the other cities seemed to be a bit too snugglebunny (but again, I'm reading descriptions and snippets on forums). Anyway, what are the other cities and guilds I might think of joining if I have to move - both within Glomdoring (which does seem to have a bard and druid guild), and beyond? What do you think of those classes for someone who doesn't want to be overwhelmed by complexity?

All classes require a fair bit of work put into them to be effective, especially if you plan to go into PvP. Warrior is not as complex as people make it out to be, but it probably is the one class that requires the most investment to play. Druids, and by extension mages, do require a fair bit of knowledge in the way meld mechanics work. It is not hard to learn, but it can be painful to master. Bards are yet another guild where it might be hard to master, but as far as initial investment is concerned, I'd recommend them over the other two. As far as the bard guilds are concerned, there's many choices, and there really isn't a wrong one.

I find that this website: https://sites.google.com/site/xieltalnara/Skills may be helpful for review. You can easily go and look over the specializations under the Music skillset to get a general idea of what you might be looking at.

As far as races are concerned, I wouldn't recommend mugwump to a starting player, and even less so if you plan to go for bard. Mugwump have horrible charisma which will hinder you in numerous ways, and they are rather fragile in the long run. Most organizations tend to have at least one (Two in the case of Hallifax) race that will gain special benefits for specializing in their particular guild skills - like shadowsinger faeling for Glomdoring Harbingers, Wild Elfen for Serenwilde WIldarrane, etc, and most of those work wonderfully well for their organization's guilds. I'd be wary of viscanti cacophony and lucidian symphonist, but beyond that, the sky is your limit, and you can even do quite well as a dwarf brewmeister if you plan to follow the bard route.

As to cities, well... snippets can give a general idea and certain organizations do fall within their respective RP to some extent. I'm not familiar of an organization presently that is heavy into snugglebunnies, mind, personal opinions aside. You will find a few snugglers in every city or commune, but those tend to be the exception rather than the rule. I'd personally recommend getting out and exploring for yourself. While you're a novice, you can change guilds as much as you like. Nobody will frown upon such. Find the place where you fit.

Shaddus · January 2015

Other people may give you different advise on this, but Bard is a solid choice for beginners. With only a minor investment in Music, you can be helpful in teams and even might snag some kills on your own. The terts are generally useful in varying ways, and acrobatics has a slew of defenses with only a minor lesson investment. There's not a lot of need for artifacts, and you'll generally also be able to influence in your offtime.

Shaddus · January 2015

As for home, every org has ups and downs. Your current home (Glomdoring) was generally one of the most active for irl years until recently. It has amazing rp potential, the skillsets all have good synergy between each other, and it's all around a good place for starters -so long as you have common sense-. But for a short while, it's been slowly getting deserted of active players. Not that this should deter you, but you should keep it in mind.

Tarkenton · January 2015

Current Glomdoring(ite|ian|an). I won't lie, right now we're probably the least active organization at the moment. This has both its good and bad sides. On the one hand, it's easier to shine when there are few other stars around you. On the other hand, well, it can get quiet and lonely. With that out of the way, I do have to say we've got a pretty cool vibe and a lot of our guilds share a very nice harmony in skillsets in combat situations. So, if you're the type of person who isn't bothered by not seeing CWHO lit up with names, you'll be fine here.

As for guilds/races, if you decide to be a bard in Glomdoring, it's pretty hard to beat being a Shadowsinger Faeling (specialized faeling race for learning Shadowbeat) in terms of statistics. Granted, you're going to likely be one of the squishiest folks, but with a sip bonus and acrobatics it isn't as bad as it could be.

All in all, Glomdoring is awesome. Wouldn't be a member if I didn't think that. Having more people, especially folks who're new to the game, would be great. Trust me, we'll take good care of you.

Kiskan · January 2015

Thanks. Expense probably isn't a big deal, and I can buy Vadi's, but even with both of those things, if you're not pretty good at coding and mastering complex offense strategies, you just really don't want to wade in and pick a class that revels in complexity. Those classes are awesome, of course, but I'd be silly to pick one.

Kiskan · January 2015

These are all great. Once I get a few more, I'll start hitting the "answered" buttons. Don't want to accidentally scare away replies (but of course more answers would be welcome even after).

Kiskan · January 2015

Yeah, it's been a bit quiet, but mostly there were enough people to answer questions, and people seemed very matter of fact (in the best, down to earth sort of way). I've met a couple of other interesting/helpful people from other orgs, so of course that's intriguing, too.

Kiskan · January 2015

Hrm, hitting "answer" actually screws the thread up :P Tempted to undo it.

Lerad · January 2015

As a note, you don't neccesarily have to switch cities to get access to a guild. All cities have mirrored guilds.

That said, each city's guilds are also very different from each other, and there ARE different classes. Just a quick, brief overview, each city has 5 archetypes,

Warrior
Bard
Monk
Druid or Mage
Wiccan or Guardian

Druids and Mages serve the same combat purpose (aoe passive effects and room control) just as Wiccans and Guardians serve the same niche (entity based, single target, mana-kill orientated). Of course, even if they serve the same purpose, their skills are different enough that the strategies are entirely unique - two of the Guardian classes don't actually have a mana-kill.

Ultimately, as you play the game, you may find yourself drawn toward a very specific, single guild for their strategy/unique abilities, but if you're just looking at the general "archetype", you don't actually have to hop. (The two newest cities don't have monk guilds, though.)

Milune · January 2015

Glomdoring is cool, it had some awesome people there when I was there. (Not sure if they are still around, though.) It has some reaaaaallly cool lore behind it that is definitely worth checking out

Synkarin · January 2015

If you stay in Glomdoring, but switch to druid/bard, any race change should be to faeling! You'll be squishier, but with various buffs available, you can mitigate it.

Riluna · January 2015

Synkarin said:

If you stay in Glomdoring, but switch to druid/bard, any race change should be to faeling! You'll be squishier, but with various buffs available, you can mitigate it.

Perma-faeling domoth buffs are gone though, right? If not, I might have to start getting aggressive.

Aerotan · January 2015

The Gloom&Doom squad can't keep them all up anymore, so I believe they're more spread out. I know Aslaran Master Race has a couple of them more or less continuously, but the rest shuffle.

Synkarin · January 2015

yeah, for the moment, but there are other buffs available, like Throne and karma blessings.

Kaimanahi · January 2015

In my opinion, Guardian/Wiccan classes are the least complex. They're easy to get into and require pretty much no investment outside of skills to be competent. Generally the difficulty will come with learning to time your attacks with your passive entourage hits (which doesn't really matter in group fights anyway) and having safety measures to make sure your entourage isn't attacking you under disloyalty. Then you just make one trigger to toad your target at <50% mana when you contemplate them - too easy. The class generally also gets a lot of great utility.

With warrior you'd need to worry about rebounding, stance/parry, and wound distribution (and it'll get lonely real quick when you don't have other warrior/monk friends to help with wounding). Bards require some awareness or automation around earwort defense, and learning how to compose and maintain your song is somewhat annoying. I might also recommend looking at monks, because while it may be somewhat complex to set up kata forms, once you're set up it should be very repetitive (and pretty easy). I think Mages/Druids may be somewhat on the easier side but probably need a little bit of investment to not be squishy fodder, but I can't really comment very well on that.

Generally, once you're happy with your decision of guild/city, you should then seek advice about race from your peers, since it's not always a no-brainer choice.

Steingrim · January 2015

Pick your top two orgs and make two characters. If you don't require people around to help most of the time then Glomdoring being a bit smaller might be a bit easier to make yourself a name.

Mages and druids might be a bit much for you. Like healers in some games, they can help make or break group combat, which means you'll have a lot of pressure to stay alive, act quickly, follow directions quickly. Still, usually someone may be willing to help you with basic scripts and set up. If you're really curious about this archetype, it may be a good choice for your second character.

I would also suggest you try bard first. Even a poor bard tends to give some benefit to their group. The other nice part about bards is they tend to put up defs pretty fast with Acrobatics' passives being pretty strong. I'm a fan of tarot which is only available to city bards, but all the terts are solid.

If you had your heart set more on knight, consider monks. In Lusternia monks can be viewed as closer to knights then other IRE games. They are weapon users and are less artifact reliant.

Enyalida · January 2015

I'll throw in my vote for bard as the best for a newer character. It has less power 1v1 at the higher tiers, but it's all around good and easy to use for a less-extreme player. You'll be good at PvE, great for helping out group combat, good at influencing, all with relativly low investment for lessons or artifacts.

Aerotan · January 2015

Tarot has some nice utility effects as I recall. Mana regen, the map of the dead, hermit to travel to other places, starleaper to get you out of pickles, and Teacher to get you cheap(ish) temporary skill ranks.

Elanorwen · January 2015

Steingrim said:

Mages and druids might be a bit much for you. Like healers in some games, they can help make or break group combat, which means you'll have a lot of pressure to stay alive, act quickly, follow directions quickly. Still, usually someone may be willing to help you with basic scripts and set up. If you're really curious about this archetype, it may be a good choice for your second character.

Mages and druids are more about running off on their own than following directions quickly. You're either breaking enemy meld which means you need to find break points and go from there. You can't be the one following the group leader if you're doing that, and chances are more often than not you'll want to not drag the group along with you. You'll also need to consider the additional lesson investment involved there to get realitycheck/treechop to be able to break melds without others assisting you. You also need to have some level of survivability in case enemies rush you as a melder so you'd be able to call for help and last long enough for backup to arrive.

Familiarity with most locations where fights might occur is definitely helpful too in case you need to hunt down break points. Chances are you won't be a primary melder if you're just starting off, of course, but the fact is that there's more to learn and track there than you would need as a bard.

Aerotan · January 2015

Elanorwen said:

Steingrim said:

Mages and druids might be a bit much for you. Like healers in some games, they can help make or break group combat, which means you'll have a lot of pressure to stay alive, act quickly, follow directions quickly. Still, usually someone may be willing to help you with basic scripts and set up. If you're really curious about this archetype, it may be a good choice for your second character.

Mages and druids are more about running off on their own than following directions quickly. You're either breaking enemy meld which means you need to find break points and go from there. You can't be the one following the group leader if you're doing that, and chances are more often than not you'll want to not drag the group along with you. You'll also need to consider the additional lesson investment involved there to get realitycheck/treechop to be able to break melds without others assisting you. You also need to have some level of survivability in case enemies rush you as a melder so you'd be able to call for help and last long enough for backup to arrive.

Familiarity with most locations where fights might occur is definitely helpful too in case you need to hunt down break points. Chances are you won't be a primary melder if you're just starting off, of course, but the fact is that there's more to learn and track there than you would need as a bard.

If your side can support it, you need at least two breaking. Move in, trueground/chop, reterrain the area with your org's meld terrain if it's not the correct one already. This keeps them from bringing the whole party to you and remelding under you as soon as you trueground.

Synkarin · January 2015

I don't think we're talking main org melder, top tier fighting ability here. There's a lot you can do as support melder that doesn't require all the knowledge that really only comes with experience. Lets be reasonable, he's looking to get involved, not dominate the world...yet.

Kregarn · January 2015

Could also consider the chem/wood side of Druid/Mage. A lot of people dismiss it but I really loved the RP behind Wyrdenwood. Granted, I was a giant tree with a bunch of clothes and jewelery stuck to the branches but it's an option that no one has seemed to mention. Melders are necessary but you get some great benefits from not taking that route as mage/druid and become a mobile bomber rather than being stuck to your meld.

Elanorwen · January 2015

Synkarin said:

I don't think we're talking main org melder, top tier fighting ability here. There's a lot you can do as support melder that doesn't require all the knowledge that really only comes with experience. Lets be reasonable, he's looking to get involved, not dominate the world...yet.

Where's the fun in that? :P

That said, I'm pointing out what he might run into along the way later on, too.

Siam · January 2015

the -woods are definitely fun! It was just sad that there were only 1 or 2 Wyrdenwood at any given time in Glom for a time: @Belibi and myself. I wasn't around for the other Wyrdenwoods yet, but that roleplay remains largely unexplored...for now!

Steingrim · January 2015

Synkarin said:

I don't think we're talking main org melder, top tier fighting ability here. There's a lot you can do as support melder that doesn't require all the knowledge that really only comes with experience. Lets be reasonable, he's looking to get involved, not dominate the world...yet.

That's all well and good until ... dun dun dun ... you're the only melder awake. I'm not sure you disagree, but my impression is that people are a bit hard on melders who goof. Certainly IMO more so than what a random bard normally gets.

Elanorwen by following directions, I mean things like breaking melds, keeping up effects, that sort of thing. Perhaps the OP could better explain their limits and concerns.There's a level of management that really isn't required of other players. I was probably reading into the OP's post some limitation on dealing with triggers/coding that it looks isn't really there.

Lerad · January 2015

Eh, I've never scolded a melder. Goof or no goof. The sight of one is usually enough to inspire groveling. If you (or anyone else) are scolding melders, you'd better be a melder yourself, and it better be for something extreme, like logging on after you have a meld set up and proceeding to break your meld to take over and THEN goofing. Because otherwise, the SPDM (Society for Prevention of Dickassery to Melders) will be stomping you into the ground faster than you can blink.

Qistrel · January 2015

Chemantics and dru-wood are really, really cool, so if you're not down with the complexity of demesnes, you can still play a fun mage or druid! Plus, chemantics is really steampunky, if you like that sort of thing. (Except Aquachemantics, which is just 'my water is sparklier than other Aquamancers'.)

Though, you don't have to do a meld if you're the only one around. People will get annoyed with you, but, they can go jump. (It took me years and years to convince people that 'no, I'm not going to go meld somewhere just because I'm the only druid around' is a valid thing to say.)

Siam · January 2015

Oh, and I just remembered that for a time, while I was a Wyrdenwood, I rp'd being able to taste the soil...and things beneath the soil, because of my roots, see. That was so fun. Imagine tasting something swampy? bog-ish? and accusing innocent bystanders of having poor hygiene, and so on.

There was also a time when we hung things from Belibi's trunk. That was fun!

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