Sonic Armor question & sonic alteration...

[nocturnix]

I have a few questions. First, if you are able to afford nice corporeal armor is it worth considering sonic?

For now I am using some +27 FGB, and am level 33. Eventualy I could increase the crit padding on it or even buy some better armor down the road. Is there any reason I should consider sonic? The crit padding is really nice if you get hit. Also I plan to eventually go pure in 10ish levels or so and will be wielding a runestaff (more for RP reasons, i know runestaff is inferior for bards).

If you have already gotten a sonic weapon alter, can you get a separate sonic armor alter too?

And finally, I heard augmented chain is what a pure should stop at eventually. Just wanted to double check this.

Thanks.

[DaCapn]

I can't speak to the armor (I don't have a good set for my bard so I just use sonic and am relatively happy with it) but I will say that I tried pure bard in the 40s and it seemed way too mana intensive to be practical. I'm pretty much writing it off until ~60, but that's me.

[nocturnix]

Yah I play with a wizard, so that should help with mana. They are both CoL.

However 60 will be when it gets good, due to finally getting the lore needed to sing at master instrument level, and also bigger mana pool.

[Vagabondbard]

Sonic Armor is perferable for me in the OTF where it makes sure you don't get critted by lightning.
Dessedemona wears sonic armor exclusively and does fine with it. +27 HCP brig will not be as good as +35 ASG 15 IMO. Just the extra TD help from being in heavier armor is worth it.

You can have 1009 1012 1014 1025 all customized with sonic alterations.

As for going pure. 1013 is your friend. Get mental mana control ranks and find the critter you can strip of mana in your hunting ground. Carry wands, better yet have your wizard charge wands and then strip those wands of mana mid hunt.

GBB

[Androidpk]

You can get an alteration for your sonic weapon, armor and your floating weapon thingy. What I would like to know is there a guideline for what is acceptable for alteration ideas? I did some searching on the boards last night and it seems most people have dark shadowy things.

[nocturnix]

Sonic Armor is perferable for me in the OTF where it makes sure you don't get critted by lightning.
Dessedemona wears sonic armor exclusively and does fine with it. +27 HCP brig will not be as good as +35 ASG 15 IMO. Just the extra TD help from being in heavier armor is worth it.

You can have 1009 1012 1014 1025 all customized with sonic alterations.

As for going pure. 1013 is your friend. Get mental mana control ranks and find the critter you can strip of mana in your hunting ground. Carry wands, better yet have your wizard charge wands and then strip those wands of mana mid hunt.

GBB

Thank you very much for your post. Very informative. I am already saving all of the blue wands i find, and have quite alot saved up.

I could also look for eventually acquiring some crit padded ASG 15, by the time i'm high enough level to wear it i may find a suit.

I guess i'm just wondering if I should go for a sonic armor alter (already have sonic weapon). I dont see getting a singing sword altered, as i dont know anyone who uses that song. Or is it worth using at later levels as a pure?

[thefarmer]

Technically, you can have a different sonic alteration for each of the armor, weapon and shield types, as well one for any weapon you can sing up.

[Whirlin]

1014 has some advantages. At lower levels, you're always able to incrementally increase your armor, without worrying about merchanting for it. Once armor training has settled down, the armor's weight is only 25% of the base armor, greatly enabling packratting. I think that's more than max lightening...? According to Krakii, apparently there's some impact vulnerability (news to me), and some elemental resistances that strengthen with air lore ranks.

Elemental resistances really shouldn't be a factor at all. Anything that's bolting that could actually hit/hurt you... you can be keeping 1017 up to neuter them. So, really the only thing that comes into play is the DS from enchant, and the ASG.

Stepping up in armor tiers, from what I recall, is the equivelent of heavy padding being added to the previous tier. So brig is the equivalent crit reduction of HCP Doubles... plus better AvD, and slightly shinier.

So... to use FGB, or Sonic Armor? DEPENDS! Personally, I took the 430 route... so once I hit 1020, I powered up to 430 ASAP. If you do this, your sonic armor at 20 ranks of bard would only be +25, which is lower than your FGB. Additionally, 20 ranks barely gives us much multi-song penalty reduction, so keeping up the song HURTS while our mana pool is so little.

So when is it worth switching? Once spellsongs mana cost isn't really an issue anymore, and the DS/AvD bonuses outweigh the slightly advantageous crit padding. Extra mana is ALWAYS nice. If you're a melee bard, more 1035, if you're a pure bard, more everything. Less subjectively, I'd recommend you should probably swap once you're at 50 ranks of Bard... the full +35 DS... FGB is nice, and not singing armor is nice too.

Bard hindrance is broken. Spells lost due to hindrance do not induce RT, and I don't think mana is lost either. Likely a coding oversight. Still hurts to miscast MnE though.

[nocturnix]

OK so i will go for a sonic armor, i guess it wouldnt hurt to have a nice pair to sing up in appropriate circumstances at higher levels.

[thefarmer]

There's no real reason not to get yourself a sonic alter. Even if you mainly use real weapons.

Unless you're just that nice of a person and don't want to hog a spot from someone that would use it every day.

[nocturnix]

Yah i'm not trying to be nice, just already have a sonic weapon alter so I dont need that. And thought I would never use sung armor, but now i see maybe it might make sense at higher levels in certain hunting areas so I might as well go for it.

[Whirlin]

Ohh... if this entire thing was about entering into a sonic alteration raffle... then you definitely shouldn't... cause I want it! :p Although, how can you really be verbose in describing a bunch of air?

[Kastrel]

Ohh... if this entire thing was about entering into a sonic alteration raffle... then you definitely shouldn't... cause I want it! :p Although, how can you really be verbose in describing a bunch of air?

Its more air than real air. Its incredibly airy.

[nocturnix]

my sonic runestaff is fucking hawt. I believe sonic alters have alot of freedom, since they are just illusions anyways.

[Androidpk]

my sonic runestaff is fucking hawt. I believe sonic alters have alot of freedom, since they are just illusions anyways.

I suppose that makes more sense if they're basically illusions. While most of the ones I see are the swirling shadowy stuff I have seen a few other interesting ones like the one made of leaves.

[Ker_Thwap]

I suppose that makes more sense if they're basically illusions. While most of the ones I see are the swirling shadowy stuff I have seen a few other interesting ones like the one made of leaves.

All depends on the merchant. The last merchant would allow me NOTHING that wasn't on the list of approved weapons and shields. Was a complete waste of a win. I was even prepared with awesome ideas that suited my character and the genre. Denied! But I'm not bitter.... yes I am.

[Androidpk]

What were your ideas?

[Whirlin]

What were your ideas?

Seconded... I'm having a pretty tough time even coming up with some good ideas for what an air based lance would look like... It looks like a big bunch of nothing... ... ... awesome...

You swing a big bunch of nothing at a rolton.

[Ker_Thwap]

Tried for a singing sword fist-scythe to be a fantastic mechanical hornet... nope. A fist scythe has to be a fist scythe, nothing else allowed.

Fine, how about something interesting for a tower shield? No, you may have a tower shield, something something or a mantlet. Those are your only choices.

No matter that there exist dozens of interesting alters that don't follow these guidelines, already in game (one that belongs to me.) Apparently I kicked this GMs puppy or something.

[Androidpk]

Seconded... I'm having a pretty tough time even coming up with some good ideas for what an air based lance would look like... It looks like a big bunch of nothing... ... ... awesome...

You swing a big bunch of nothing at a rolton.

Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to think about your. Tomorrows raffle has my name all over it!

[Whirlin]

Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to think about your. Tomorrows raffle has my name all over it!

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ma32oayImg1qkj7vc.jpg

[Drakefang]

Tried for a singing sword fist-scythe to be a fantastic mechanical hornet... nope. A fist scythe has to be a fist scythe, nothing else allowed.

Fine, how about something interesting for a tower shield? No, you may have a tower shield, something something or a mantlet. Those are your only choices.

No matter that there exist dozens of interesting alters that don't follow these guidelines, already in game (one that belongs to me.) Apparently I kicked this GMs puppy or something.

Yeah this is all a load of shit. I base this on what I've gotten done AND what everyone else gets. You got stuck with a merchant that had a runestaff stuck up their hooha. Sonic alterations have ALWAYS allowed the most freedom of any alterations because they are MAGIC...mother fucking magical air. WTF kind of stipulations do you put on magical vibrating air?! I blame it on new GMs that are scared shitless by their trainers so they don't do anything even semi fun or cool.

Save it for CCF. I bet they let you turn stuff into dildos there.

[Whirlin]

Save it for CCF. I bet they let you turn stuff into dildos there.

... Air Dildo...

[Vagabondbard]

shimmering long-bladed warlance
White beams of light turn around one another, shimmering brightly in the blade of a long-bladed warlance. A long, two-handed grip is separated by a vamplate, its solar-disk shape made up of churning, nearly translucent air. Shining down the shaft of the weapon are large specks of silver and gold that flash in and out of existence, their bursts distinctly star-shaped, their light converging at the tip of the blade in a brilliant point of illumination.

swirling soot and ash barrier
Motes of dark grey light swirl like falling soot across the ashen darkened landscape of the swirling black barrier, dissipating into the opaque murky mix. Rivers of undulating red air roil outward from the center of the chest, thinning as they reach outward, along the arms, and down the legs. At times, the crimson veins pulse brightly and a spray of red motes explode from the center before the light is once again obscured by the matte grey ash.

A hovering nebulous sonic voulge
Hovering a few inches from the ground is a shimmering, ethereal voulge. The long shaft of the weapon is made of pulsating black air, illuminated from within by flashes of silver and gold that travel up the shaft like shooting stars before winking out in star-shaped bursts against the dark background. The long, sinuously curved blade capping the voulge flames gold and red, the colors shifting like the flaring surface of the sun.

They can't do much with the name of the weapons but the descriptions can be just about anything. Every weapon has a list of alternate names. That scorpion you see is a halberd and an approved alternate for halberds. Also Galenok, Archales, and Kilthor all have very nice sonic alterations.



GBB

[Vagabondbard]

Bard hindrance is broken. Spells lost due to hindrance do not induce RT, and I don't think mana is lost either. Likely a coding oversight. Still hurts to miscast MnE though.

Depends by what you think is broken. Spells can all be 515'd songs can't. Song renewal formula has mana consumption per hour absolutely dwarfing the costs of all other classes just for the defense spells. Songs can fall on any renew (max is what 11 minutes?) spells can't. What you consider broken I consider a feature and one we "pay" for. When manual song renewal had no RT GM Lyredean asked us if we wanted developement with manual renew RT added, or stay without a complete circle. We wanted a complete circle so much it was a rhetorical question.

It seems to me that bard songs are a coding nightmare since things like the rift pool taking self casts spells still takes bard songs after all this time. The fact that no one bothers with bard coding has its benefits though.

GBB

[nocturnix]

Yah as Vagabond said you still have to stay within the weapon type possibilities, but other than that you can do more. IE. shadowy/smoky/whisp etc. stuff you cant do with corporeal items.

[Drakefang]

My alters are all darkish. It is mostly based on roleplay, though, and has less to do with aesthetics. Galenok is tied into Ronan pretty tightly, so the obvious alters make some sense.

a roiling black fog waraxe - Trapped in the form of a long-hafted axe, this weapon is brought to life through the deep thrumming vibrations of a clear basso. Inky blackness churns and coils within the sharply curved blade where tiny silver motes of light twinkle with the brilliance of a hundred stars. In contrast to the undulating chaos of the blade, the dark shaft is nearly solid, with only the faintest trace of lingering vibrations. (older alter that I really don't use any more. Hate getting rid of it, though)

a shadowy silver-starred barrier - Currents of air have been bound into the form of a barrier, tinted with rippling, misty shadows. Suspended in the silently churning zephyrs, starry motes of silver flicker to the surface, only to fade and blossom again from the depths. Nebular fingers wind their way through the smoky translucence, reminiscent of night creeping over a twilight sky.

A misty silver-stringed longbow - A shaft of black mist swirls and twists together, curving inwards from each end to form the long limbs of the longbow. Faint glimmers of white light twinkle throughout the darkness, looking like the constellations in the sky. A gleaming strand of silver is strung between the limbs, vibrating slightly with a faint pure tone.

[Danical]

Tried for a singing sword fist-scythe to be a fantastic mechanical hornet... nope. A fist scythe has to be a fist scythe, nothing else allowed.

Fine, how about something interesting for a tower shield? No, you may have a tower shield, something something or a mantlet. Those are your only choices.

No matter that there exist dozens of interesting alters that don't follow these guidelines, already in game (one that belongs to me.) Apparently I kicked this GMs puppy or something.

Sucks man. Dollars to donuts that GM was new and was following the letter of the law instead of allowing the flexibility others have demonstrated.

Given the chance, I wanted something like, "A perpetually rotating cog-shaped tower shield" or something to fit with my Gnomish Mechanical/Materials Engineer.

[Danical]

Depends by what you think is broken. Spells can all be 515'd songs can't. Song renewal formula has mana consumption per hour absolutely dwarfing the costs of all other classes just for the defense spells. Songs can fall on any renew (max is what 11 minutes?) spells can't. What you consider broken I consider a feature and one we "pay" for. When manual song renewal had no RT GM Lyredean asked us if we wanted developement with manual renew RT added, or stay without a complete circle. We wanted a complete circle so much it was a rhetorical question.

It seems to me that bard songs are a coding nightmare since things like the rift pool taking self casts spells still takes bard songs after all this time. The fact that no one bothers with bard coding has its benefits though.

GBB

The very best part about Spellsongs is the ability to fail a cast from armor hindrance and lose ZERO mana and incur ZERO RT.