I've decided...I've grown stagnant in Mag. I love alot of you guys....but I've gone as far as I can go and it's just not much fun anymore. It's not a mad "I'M LEAVING"...I just play Lusternia for fun, obviously...so I need to be somewhere I can have fun. Glom looks fun.

Here's my problem...I need a Guild that is RPs but also good at combat options.

I want to stay Kephera, I like it alot, but if it's just not viable for combat, I can change.

My options are Shadowdancer or Blacktalon. No to bards and ebonguard.

My questions.

I don't have a system that works in choke, is Shadowdancer even viable? I was thinking Healer, Ariatas pulled it off really well.

Is it possible to be a good (not decent) Blacktalon combatant as Kephera? And what tertiery would I need to choose?

Oh and how is the RP for both those guilds?

Thoughts are really appreciated.

At any rate, sorry Mag I hate to leave you when you need defenders the most but Mag is driving me nuts.

I'm readying the zerg as we speak.

A lot of fighters simply pause their system while in choke, as a SD, you'll usually have the jump on the enemy anyway, since SD's tend to camp in their choke. It's a matter of building momentum first from there. Healer SD's are the best of type of Healer fighters as well, just brumetower, climb, seize, web, scourge, aurashift neurosis, then succumb, etc etc.

I don't think you can be "good" as a kephera (maybe for bashing?) in the BT, ask Pentu, she'd know. BT's are the better Druids though, IMO. You'll want to go for Dreamweaving or Runes. I'd say Runes because everyone loves radder. I mean, you enjoy people saying, "BREAK BREAK MELD OH GOD RAD RAD NOW" right?

Both are RP's are good, though that's more from hearsay than personal experience.

Eitherway, if you're going Druid, hope you don't mind being one of the first to die, for SD, hope you don't mind the frequent "If you didn't have choke, you'd die so much lol" type of things. They all have their bad points, but both are interesting classes.

But right, get the zerg.

P.S. See Krellan, there wouldn't be a point to those credits afterall.

BT only if you hate having more than dross in your reserves. Suuup.

Also, if you're a druid, no personal glory.

I really hated druid combat. If you aren't in your demesne, you're never going to win, and if you are in your demesne during a raid your going to get hit first with very few means of protecting yourself from dying.

If you're ok with the mechanics of druid combat (which is a big question), and you're willing to put in the extra effort to get by as a kephera in Glom (less of an issue, really), kephera is an incredibly awesome druid race.

Runes is the best druid combat tertiary, but it's boring. Dreamweaving will get the job done and is a lot less monotonous than runes. Ecology is very eh.

I..in all honesty...hate demesnes. They are just a pain to set up and keep up..and keep people in. I hate being tied down to how far I can meld. And I hate the idea of being gimped outside of it.

I was hoping my efforts trying to stop the raising of the queens, help killing the queen of queens, and hunting/offering of Kephera would make things a bit more lenient. *beg*

At any rate...I still haven't decided BT or SD...sooo hard

Well, everyone hates demesnes. People hate using them, people hate fighting in them, etc.

But if you hate them as a mage, just wait until you're a druid. Druid demesnes, especially BT's, are the best demesnes in the game. However, you are completely reliant upon it.

How do you figure druid demesnes are the best in the game? As much as I hate treelife, currents/whirlpool are much worse. I'd rather fight in a geo demesne any day, followed by Hartstone, Blacktalon and Aquamancer in that order.

Celina: if you hate demesnes that much, surely you should go for the non-demesne class...

If you hate demesnes, you can't be a real druid fighter. Sorry. A novice Nihilist has more skills than we can use out of demesne.

How effective are they in demesne? I know Geo demenses are really nice to have, but they don't really make you that much better. It's just the stun and maybe the sip penalty.

Druids are pretty sick in demesne for various reasons, but outside you're limited to lamearse deepsleep-whoring or something. It afflicts, paralyses, treelifes (and this skill is sick in group combat too), and BT demesne has the high-power murder thing going on.

But you hate demesnes! Why would you even consider a demesne class? SDs are insanely powerful between choke and um...choke + everything else they have. Oh, and succumb. Wiccans aren't that high-maintenance either - there's some heavy power costs whenever you log in/die (more MDs than SDs here, but I'm not counting shadow-gathering). It's not quite as free as being a monk/warrior, but keeping your ents on you isn't that hard, unless you get treebaned or whatever.

Good point. SD it is. Now to choose a race/tertiary...so many decisions. Picking a guild in mag was so much simpler!

Mugwump for speed. But you'll be squishy...

1v1, I'd pick a skilled druid over a mage any day in demesne. The power of a saplock >> whirlpool. Outside of demesne, mage for sure.

For PvP, if you're going to go Hexen or Astrologer, go Mugwump.
If you're going to go with Healer, then Kephera will be fine.

Hexen SDs, if played properly, can get a complete sleeplock on almost any target.
Basic strategy for Healer SDs was already mentioned by Sojiro. It's going to be really boring, but it works!
Astrologer SDs are the weakest of the three, but they can still work pretty well. You have the added option of Aeon, but...without anorexia, it's pretty hard to stop them from just sipping. Still, you have the advantage in Choke, as you don't need to spend that extra second drawing Hexes, and can afflict from the start.

Biggest downside to SD fighting is that 90% of the people refuse to learn to fight in it, and so that 90% will always mock your wins with 'Choke is OP, you'd suck outside of Choke, etc.'

In terms of OPness: Hexen, Healer, Astrologer.
In terms of fun: Hexen, Astrologer, Healer.

EDIT: Oh, and the RP of SDs is definitely solid. We've been going through a few rough patches lately, but you'll almost always find someone to RP well with. And we're all awesomly elitist!

Not sure how to broach this, so I'll just toss it out. As much as you seem to hate monks, playing an aeon-reliant class is going to make it worse. Multiple kata forms = 1 command = aeon delay once for many attacks. Then while the hits are landing at full speed ahead, they go through aeon-speed curing, but so do you in choke.

Now, factor in that regeneration works in choke. Monks (at least the Harmony using Shofangi/Tahtetso) have the best regeneration options in game. If they're Loboshigaru, more regeneration. If they chose Psymet, yet more regeneration. Oh, and enchantments. They're almost an afterthought.

Monks can completely destroy SDs in Choke if properly prepared. Though if the SD Hexen/Healer gets the first move in, Monks have a hard time making a comeback.

Every class can sometimes beat an SD in choke if the SD isn't paying attention/hasn't bothered setting up at all/doesn't know what to do. Otherwise they mostly can't.

Also, deja vu. Hmm.

From my (read as very minor, pointless, and mostly useless experience) I would say unless you just hate the hell out of demesne, look at BT again. They easily have the best novice program, and I have never had anything but fun as a BT.

Although, I pictures hexes as someone holding a giant crayon, drawing hexes in the air and pushing them into the next room comically, which is a priceless mental image to have when you hex-rape someone to the down.