So in the process of rebuilding my combat system, I've finally begun to put up defenses when I log in and just keep them up.

Blindness/Sixthsense and Deafness/Truehearing has presented me with an annoyance, that I'm sure everyone else has solved for themselves already. Every time I log in, I'm required to cure blindness and deafness, and then reapply to gain sixthsense and truehearing. That's four herbs every time I log in.

So, what's the solution? Is there a way to keep these defs up without having to eat four herbs per login? Or does everyone simply keep them off until they get into combat? Are there skills somewhere in the common skillsets to replace the herbs?

Thanks in advance.

The system I use applies health to cure the blindness automatically when I log in (then I do it again to cure the deafness).

Ok, I didn't realize that applying health would cure blindness/deafness, so that's one solution. That still eats up four applications, but health is easy to get and one application costs next to nothing.

Any other solutions?

I eat myrtle to cure the blindness/deafness, then put up sixthsense, and truehearing if I want it.

The reason you may not want it is because being deaf will protect you from bard afflictions, but theycan stun the heck out of you.

But yeah, no real way around it. Either apply health or eat the herbs.

If you're worried about resource use, then only put up sixthsense/truehearing if you need it. If you log in with the intent to just bash or forge or hang around your nexus, then you don't need those defenses. You won't find a skill that substitutes for the herbs, either.

I have a few different modes for defenses:
- one that just puts up basic utility things like thirdeye, deathsense, insomnia and the like (no resource use),
- one that I use for hunting: regen enchants, facepaints, etc... (small resource use),
- one for full combat: herbs, sip love/quicksilver, protection scroll, etc... (heavy resource use).

It's progressive, so going up one level of defenses doesn't take too long, and you're never caught entirely defenseless. Hope that's helpful to you.

"You won't find a skill that substitutes for the herbs, either."

umm, invoke green?

Aye, that's basically what I'm going for at this point.



Does this mean that bards will stun you instead of afflicting you if you have truehearing?

The stun will also strip the truehearing.

I always keep every def I have up at all times, just because it's annoying if you get jumped while hunting, or if a raid or revolt occurs, and you have to finish deffing before you can go.

I agree, but lately I'm finding that I spend a lot of time around my nexus with no real need to leave, so I decided to stagger my defs out a bit. If I leave the city I put everything up.



So, if you have truehearing up a bards attack will not give affliction, but instead stun and strip truehearing. Harsh. Is it better to just drop truehearing altogether and cure what they give?

No real answer to that, it really just depends on the bard, the circumstances, the situation, and which you think you could handle better.

I know, I hate it too. Things that don't have a cut and dry, programmable answer aggravate me.

It just makes it all the more fun to solve. It'd be too easy if it just fell into place.

I meant for the defs.

And if he's worried about burning a couple herbs for curing, I doubt he wants to start using power cures.

The idea is to save the herbs for when I'm actually fighting. If I'm in combat I don't care what it takes, I'll do it. When I'm standing around doing nothing I'd rather not waste resources.

Blanknote removes captive audience, can break pentagram, and if you are hit with it while deaf, it makes you able to hear again with a brief stun and gives earache, which stops you from getting truhearing again for a few moments.

Edit - and for the other questions you should just play around with it and see which is more hindering, the songs or the occasional stun. It will vary some for each of the bard guilds.

Ahh, so it's just specific skills. That makes more sense. Thanks.

Don't put them up unless you need them. Sixthsense isn't really necessary since you don't fight many glamours bards anymore since OP Ecology showed up. Only use deafness to get out of perfectfifth, really, since right now an eco bard can blanknote/pfifth/batbane you and then use insta and there's almost nothing you can do about it. As was said health cures deaf/blind I personally use earwort/faeleaf to heal deaf/blind respectively. Saves on myrtle. Only other solution geared towards combat would be to buy a lot of herbs.