Lumi
09-22-2009, 03:38 AM
Some notes of interest from Estild tonight, in response to my chrism research:
- The experience retention effect of a chrism is based solely on the blesser's training in Spiritual Lore: Blessings. A base chrism provides 50% retention, while a chrism from a cleric with 65 ranks of Blessings provides 100% retention.
- The DS mitigation effect is based solely on the value of the gem used. This effect is not subject to critical thresholds; every bit of value contributes to this effect. So a 3000 silver gem (the cheapest capable of taking a chrism blessing) will have a certain degree of Death's Sting mitigation, while a 3100 silver gem will have a slightly higher degree of mitigation. A 10k gem will provide considerably more mitigation, an 11k gem more than that, a 12k even more than that, etc.
- For all intents and purposes, there is no cap on the DS mitigation effect of a chrism. The value of a gem that would provide 100% mitigation is far higher than any gem that exists in the game could possibly reach.
- The meditation effect of a chrism gem (WAVE the chrism at a non-cleric, non-empath, non-monk character, and it will allow them to enter a meditative state, like the aforementioned classes are intrinsically capable of) is based on a combination of the gem's intrinsic value AND the blessing cleric's Spiritual Lore: Religion ranks.
- The visual descriptor of the cobalt liquid inside a chrism gem ("ordinary", "bright", "vibrant", "glowing", etc.) indicates the strength of the chrism for purposes of meditation ONLY (the higher the "tier" of the descriptor, the longer the effect will last). It has no bearing on the experience retention or DS mitigation effects of that chrism.
- There is no way to determine the strength of the experience retention or DS mitigation effects by looking at a chrism. However, while a blessed gem can no longer be appraised in a gemshop, the value of the gem used CAN still be divined by loresong, which can in turn be used to approximate the degree of DS mitigation it will provide. The value can also be determined by APPRAISEing the gem if you have sufficient Trading ranks. There is no way, to my knowledge, to determine the strength of the experience retention effect at all.
The bottom line, as I see it is this:
1. It's easy to max out the experience retention effect: find a cleric with 65 ranks of Blessings to do it. This is the feature that people seem to care the most about.
2. It's impossible to "max out" the DS mitigation effect, one can make an educated guess about which gems will be most effective by paying attention to loresong value. I personally love being able to recover as fast as possible, but people seem to prioritize this feature of chrisms much lower than the previously mentioned one.
3. No one uses the meditation effect, so it doesn't matter. Most people don't even realize that chrisms are capable of doing this, and it would generally be considered a waste of a gem.
Hope this stuff is of interest and value to the clerical community. It's been very educational for me!
(Big thanks to Estild for answering so many questions on the subject tonight!)
- The experience retention effect of a chrism is based solely on the blesser's training in Spiritual Lore: Blessings. A base chrism provides 50% retention, while a chrism from a cleric with 65 ranks of Blessings provides 100% retention.
- The DS mitigation effect is based solely on the value of the gem used. This effect is not subject to critical thresholds; every bit of value contributes to this effect. So a 3000 silver gem (the cheapest capable of taking a chrism blessing) will have a certain degree of Death's Sting mitigation, while a 3100 silver gem will have a slightly higher degree of mitigation. A 10k gem will provide considerably more mitigation, an 11k gem more than that, a 12k even more than that, etc.
- For all intents and purposes, there is no cap on the DS mitigation effect of a chrism. The value of a gem that would provide 100% mitigation is far higher than any gem that exists in the game could possibly reach.
- The meditation effect of a chrism gem (WAVE the chrism at a non-cleric, non-empath, non-monk character, and it will allow them to enter a meditative state, like the aforementioned classes are intrinsically capable of) is based on a combination of the gem's intrinsic value AND the blessing cleric's Spiritual Lore: Religion ranks.
- The visual descriptor of the cobalt liquid inside a chrism gem ("ordinary", "bright", "vibrant", "glowing", etc.) indicates the strength of the chrism for purposes of meditation ONLY (the higher the "tier" of the descriptor, the longer the effect will last). It has no bearing on the experience retention or DS mitigation effects of that chrism.
- There is no way to determine the strength of the experience retention or DS mitigation effects by looking at a chrism. However, while a blessed gem can no longer be appraised in a gemshop, the value of the gem used CAN still be divined by loresong, which can in turn be used to approximate the degree of DS mitigation it will provide. The value can also be determined by APPRAISEing the gem if you have sufficient Trading ranks. There is no way, to my knowledge, to determine the strength of the experience retention effect at all.
The bottom line, as I see it is this:
1. It's easy to max out the experience retention effect: find a cleric with 65 ranks of Blessings to do it. This is the feature that people seem to care the most about.
2. It's impossible to "max out" the DS mitigation effect, one can make an educated guess about which gems will be most effective by paying attention to loresong value. I personally love being able to recover as fast as possible, but people seem to prioritize this feature of chrisms much lower than the previously mentioned one.
3. No one uses the meditation effect, so it doesn't matter. Most people don't even realize that chrisms are capable of doing this, and it would generally be considered a waste of a gem.
Hope this stuff is of interest and value to the clerical community. It's been very educational for me!
(Big thanks to Estild for answering so many questions on the subject tonight!)