Empathic Challenges

[Ilvane]

Hrm..okay.

Starting a discussion/poll on the empath's challenges.

What are the biggest issues to Elanthian empaths at this time and in the future?


-A

[Captain Amby]

in the future, definitely hunting. Right now though, I have no problems.

[Skaster]

Not enough wounded. I've had to travel back and forth from Solhaven to TSC to the crypt to Voln and even stay on call on the amunet to even get fried anymore. More experience per wound or more wounded, damnit. Empath to player ratio is declining, something should be done.

[Fabled]

I definitely agree the changes are neutering empaths ability to hunt. With 1 minute Wall of Force, increased costs for combat training and eventually losing the Major Spirit Circle all together - It is a very tough cookie to swallow.

[Tendarian]

Cant empaths in gs4 double train in spell aim? Granted having to use wands or 111 isnt ideal but.... I assume at higher levels this just wouldnt be feasable?

[Trinitis]

Ok..Look at it this way.

As it stands now, empaths have *ok* AS ability, but fairly poor DS help. Cacalia, before I turned her into a pure healer, had horrible problems with Zombies. I could hit them..but since they did not stun, If there was more then one, or my timing got off (lag, or distractions) I was dead. I did find a way "around this", but it involved me spending about 10 mana per zombie..and with only 60ish mana, that ain't much to work with.

Problem two, There are way more healers then there is wounded. I moved Cacalia to a pure healer when reallocation hit. She dropped a lot of her armor training (down to 8 ranks for double leather) and all her CM's. I pushed my spells higher for fog. Now, I can sit in TC all day and heal..maybe 3k worth of experience (this is TC in Icemule, btw.) This stems from there being a too high empath ratio, and from what I call "robo" foggers in Icemule. There are 3 to 4 people who basicly hold firm grip on all fogging that happens in town. And they work in groups..so one fogs, returns, the other heals, and the first raises. Its really hard to compete with this when you only have fog out, have limited LK flasks, and a quarter of their mana.

Now, GS4 problems that I see?

A : Loss of experience healing. The pure healers are now even more at a loss. The fight for healing exp is going to get worse now that you learn less from it.

B: With the loss of the major circle, we have lost most of our AS boosters, so we are pretty much forced into the caster path.

C: As far as I can tell, we get 2 new hunting spells, bone shatter, which is CS based, but does not work on anything without bones (so that cuts out all constructs, any magical creatures, and all non-comporial (sp?) undead). There is also rumor of another spell that will use Spell aiming, so we must double in spell aiming to be able to use that well (they cannot form creatures expecting a 1x spell aiming, cause they would be nothing but bait for wizards.)

D: Weapon costs. With the weapon costs rising, we will be pushed over into the spell staff system. But, we still have a lack of DS, empaths have always had that problem.

In end, I personally feel that the empathic struggle is still going strong, and will untill the GM's, and players, find a way to work together to solve the problem. This has been tried many times, but if you watch the empath boards, they normally turn into squabbling between fairness, and rights to advance.

-Adredrin

Note : Please note that the DS problems could be fixed with the new minor mental spell circle, but since I do not know what spells are in this circle, I choose not to lay complete faith in it.

[Edited on 9-16-2003 by LordAdredrin]

[Drew2]

There is also rumor of another spell that will use Spell aiming, so we must double in spell aiming to be able to use that well (they cannot form creatures expecting a 1x spell aiming, cause they would be nothing but bait for wizards.)

It's called Fire Spirit.

Tayre swings 335 at level 45 with all the spells on. Not too shabby, if you ask me. Defense sucks though. If I use intensity it drops to just below 200. :/

[Fabled]

Fire spirit is not an effective hunting spell. Our defensive strength is already low enough to begin with. Without an airwall, I'll accumulate more death recovery points than fame.