I've been thinking about this a bit, since switching back to the Hartstone, and after wandering around the other IRE boards for a few months.

I love Lusternia, but in comparison to the other games, the skills just feel flat. I played a Sentinel for years in Achaea. Woodlore lets you lay traps, summon animals, use weapons, and has some utility skills. Metamorphosis has tons of different stuff. Maybe those are bad skills to compare things too, since they are so varied, but looking around, lots of others seem fun, where much of Lusternia doesn't really strike me as very exciting.

Look at Wicca. That's just about the most boring skill I've ever had. Fae really just don't do all that much. A lot of Moon isn't used because I don't carry around four other Moon users in my pocket Tracking is mostly just traps, most of which aren't used. Druids in other realms get tons of Grove stuff; demesnses here are 95% combat.

In general, it just seems that all of our skills are very narrow. As a guild, you have many options, but any single member ends up with few. Maybe it's just me always thinking that whatever I don't have is better, I don't know. Anyone else notice anything like this?

That's the case.

I always kind of felt that in Imperian we had more abilities in each skillset. I've always felt there was more to each guild, though you have more skill options here guild wise, in Imperian.

Totems have all the utility of Metamorphosis without any of the annoying stuff. All the combat skills are in Stag/Moon, and all the utility/travel stuff is in Totems. I don't see that as flat, just more segregated.

But yes, in general, the skills are more segregated than they are in Achaea, but then again, we have one more guildskill than most guilds in Achaea. In Achaea, all knights had forging, which let them, well, forge as per our tradeskill. All sentinels/druids/sylvans had concoctions, which let them do what our alchemy and herbalism trades do. All magi had enchanting. We have three skillsets that do the work of two in Achaea, so of course those two will seem like they can do more. Imperian seems the same way - just about every guild has one skillset that's really a trade. Runelore, Artistry, Toxins, Forging, etc. This makes the other two seem more rich.

You could even say that, for instance, an ecologist druid has SIX guildskills, whereas an Achaean druid has just the two. Totems, Stag/Crow, Nature, Druidry, Hunting, Ecology. Ecology has ranged offense (fetishes), room attacks (smudges), utility (charms, herbrenewal, transmigrate). Hunting has travel (pathfinding), utility (campfire, prints, tent, etc), and offense (ambush). Druidry has demesnes and offense. Nature has travel (flow), combat (vines), and utility (rain). Stag has tons of buffs, and Totems has all the utility skills of Metamorphosis without all that silly mucking about with bonds.

All in all, I think theres just as much skill variety here as there, just more spread out.


38 skills in Knifeplay
51 skills in Predation

18 skills in Totems, 19 skills in Stag
14 skills in Nature, 27 skills in Druidry

34 skills in Dreamweaving
29 skills in Runes
13 skills in Hunting, 22 skills in Ecology

89 skills for an Idras (not counting their tradeskill)
112, 107, or 113 skills for a Hartstone druid (not counting their tradeskill).

you missed one of the skills for Idras. Toxicology? I think it is?? Whereas Toxins, Forging, etc are trades skill esquece(sp?) you can't count them as such, since they're the 3 skill and there are trade skills in Imperian.

Concoctions are also now world wide, and Arbs are getting Naturalism, and Hunters are getting uh...can't remember. I think Trailblazing?

Which is a Tradeskill, equivilent to Poisons. Which a Druid could take and not lose a guildskill.

If you're going to show how many abilities are in a class of Impy's and Lusty then have all or choose a class that doesn't have a "tradeskill" for its 3rd.

Personally, I think they should let us get to pick two specializations instead! So we can have Tracking and Moon, or Stag and Tracking (no Moon + Stag, that'd be overpowered). Then Mages can get Telekinesis and Runes/Dreamweaving. Think of the potentials to be insanely overpowered!

I'd love Moon, Stag, and Tarot. *daydream*

I think knights should be allowed to ditch Athletics for one of the 'optional' skills... espically with tracking which seems to be SOOO set up to work hand in hand with totems... of course that may just be my impression...

And I was much more 'fulfilled' with my tri-trans Noctu, Warden/later Monk on Imperian, and definetlly my Achaean Monk. It wasn't the number of skills... it was the little things in the skills, be it a skill in telepathy which essentially gives you another 'tell' channel, or the little tests as you advance. A lot of the Noctu skills were fun... had RP involved, such as summoning your demons and such...

I do like skill choices in Lusternia... I would like to see druids get the ability to actually kill... since lash has been downgraded! (I've had several arena spars where I was able to get level 90-100 completely locked up, and I could not, just cudgeling, kill them before the arena timed me out... and lashing was just insanly stupid. Even after stag stomp, darkside, and such, they were still getting out of it before I could get a seoncd one on them. Anyways... this rant is for another place, hehe.

I suppose you could let them, but I find what I have in Athletics to be extraordinarily useful, and plus it gives those of us who want to follow none of the Great Spirits "officially" another path.

I think some of the skills could definitely use more abilities, and the admins have already shown that they're more than willing to accept inputs and implement the best suggestions. No one likes getting a new ability at Mythical and then having to learn all the way to Transcendent for the next new ability. There should be smaller steps to make learning more worthwhile and fun.

I love Subterfuge in Achaea, partly because of the huge number of abilities and partly because of the utility of some of the abilities (evade, phase, snipe). Can I please have some (any) ranged attack as a warrior? My current skill choices don't seem to include anything whatsoever for hitting someone in the next room. Even if it's just a "minor annoyance for my enemies" ability to keep me from becoming some overpowered tank PLUS ranged attacks, I'd like to have something...

I generally really like the flair of Lusternias skillsets. The ab files are pretty well written, and can make someone really want to use the skill to see what happens. My personal favourite have to be the Nihilism/Necromancy skillsets, just because they look so badass when used, even if some of the skills could use small changes. Generally, I dislike the Geomancy/Druidry/Aquamancy skillsets most. They are basically just for demesnes, and lack much of the flair I like to have in my skillsets. I mean, nailing someone against a cross vs. making some poisonous fumes in my demesnes.....yes, you get what I mean.
Erm...not sure if I was on topic, but it was...vaguely related.

Throw stone! "FIND ROCK" has a chance of finding a rock to throw. "THROW STONE" throws a stone at an enemy in an adjacent room. Stuns for one second.

*nod* I had Groves for a while in Achaea, and loved the extra utility. Grove Eyes, Forestwatch, Isolation, they were all pretty neat. Demesnes in Lusternia are almost purely combat, no real style or utility.

If they'd fix throwing weapons, you'd have that to use.

ONE second? OMGNERF!!1+shift

Besides, knights don't throw stones, squires do. Knights break enemy stuff up... hmm, that's a thought.

Athletics for me is simply a rip-off of Kaido from other IRE games except without the awesome Kai abilities. The first few Warrior Envoys changed that somewhat as to make some of the skills more unique but in all it is still rather bland. I agree that many of the skillsets could stand to get more utility skills, especially for the Mage/Druid demesnes and Warrior's Athletics.

I'd like to see mage/druid skills that said that if you had a 20 or 25 room demesne in a single local area, you gained certain abilities. For instance, the ability to see when people entered or left the local area. The ability to cast Center as if you were in your demesne from anywhere in that local area (normally, the skill works different if you are in or out of your demesne: 0p instant teleport to the center of your demesne inside, and 2p delayed teleport if outside). The ability to worldwide-flow to another mage/druid of the same class from your 20/25 room demesne to them in their 20/25 room demesne (might be really annoying to code though).

I think the main difference between groves and demesnes is that you get emotionally attatched to the grove. It sort of feels like you 'own' a small little area of the forest, and is very personal. Sort of like it is your room. Demesnes, however, are fairly impersonal. You don't get the feeling that you are taking charge of the land, and you don't feel sad when you have to dissolve it.

Sometimes, bigger isn't better.