I am having trouble deciding if I should go with telepathy or telekinetics. While I have used telepathy before, I found it to be lacking in the amount of kills one can get because if the person I was sparring/fighting had focus mind, most of my affliction giving power went out the window. I -know- telekinetics is viable because there have been a lot of combatants who have successfully used it(Marie, Fillin, Vathael, Munsia, Nydekion, and Ruiku). But, I am more attracted to telepathy because.....I just like its RP value more.
Any tips or advice on what to do?

I would do whatever you want. Both are very good tertiary skills. Try TK since you have went TP already! It could be a good experience.

Professor X or Jean Grey?

Easy choice: skillflex both!

See that's not even fair. Some of us like TK and still wish Jean Grey would die a horrible horrible death. If you think you'll come by a lot
of credits then go with TK. You can always temporarily forget TK and go TP later. I think generally people lean one way or the other
on this subject. I've seen people do well with TK or TP. I don't know about the others, but Munsia seemed to be pretty successful
using TP when she was in Celest. I'd say do what your gut tells you to do.

Avatar.... too... fluffy... *twitch* *twitch*

Now that that is out of my system.....

Telepathy is "less reliable" than telekinesis in that you are aiming for ego damage to get kills and healing is a fair degree higher than original telepathy had to deal with. Telekinesis is just plan better utility, I cannot even argue in favour of telepathy because it would take alot of effort to be good with it, while TK can you have fun with and try new things and still get somewhere.

I don't know what sort of 'RP value' you want to get out of the skillset (you really can't read minds no matter what you try) but looking at it from combat mind: Telepathy is still very viable.

Now, I can't say it's particularly viable for everyone. Aeromancers are probably the best demesne class suited to Telepathy, just as Pyromancers synergize really well with Telekinesis. Second place runners for those are Aquamancers and Geomancers respectively. But it's still a very viable tertiary, in my experience. The last time Telepathy was altered that I can remember was either the PsychicVampirism change (buff) or the implementation of Squads (irrelevant)... if not that, it was the Addiction change (buff) - it's been left dormant for probably two or three years now. The only things that have changed to make it 'harder' than Telekinesis are:

1. DMP. Pre-Psyvamp, mindblast was the telepath's main tool for getting someone into mindburst range. The only tool, really. With DMP, all given psychic resistances scale much better (worse, for you). Combine this with point two...

2. Stat scaling. Mindblast is based purely on Intelligence. When Forren stopped doing 1,800 damage staffcasts, he stopped doing 2,000 damage mindblasts (they were never actually that bad but you get the idea). Not only are you doing less health damage, now, but it's easier to resist, and the viability/availability of arbitrarily-psychic-resisting races have gone up (Lucidian, Trill, Kephera, Illithoid to name a few). Likewise, the merging of Magic with the Low/Highmagic skillsets make Mindblast less powerful in practice - you are more likely to encounter someone with magic resistance now than you are in the past, as the Magic skill had existed solely for a defensive purpose (and was one of the last skills prioritized to learn as a result, having no auxiliary buff a la Resilience poison shrugging).

3. It's easier to run away. Tumble restrictions were thrown entirely out the window, we have Acrobatics, several forms of dodging/stupidity that hamper crucial combos such as Foresight, Badluck, and Snafu. With telepathy, if you don't get off all 3 of your skills and your illusion in quick succession, you'll be more penalized than you would with Telekinesis. Likewise, without Barrier, you have to wait for 6 seconds at the most to chase someone who tumbles away from your group or even yourself, making chasing attempts very ineffectual. Hell, with demesne sizes and effective range-of-effect reduced, there's nothing stopping someone from just walking out of your demesne entirely anymore, unless you're an Aquamancer or a very lucky Aeromancer.

4. There are more forms of passive healing available. This is actually a fairly minor point - all you need the victim to do is whiff their sip on an irrelevant vital statistic into addiction, follow up with a hindering affliction, then damage their ego + another healing-hindering illusion. If Sweetfount, Westwind or Drink ticks and heals on one of these, so be it: your job is already done.

5. Systems are better. This, along with DMP and stat scaling, is probably one of your main problems. They've gotten smarter. If you get hit with a combo, a smart system will stop, diagnose and/or immediately focus mind before it starts sipping, as Telepathy is 95% mental afflictions. m&m is one of the more popular and top-of-the-line systems, but I can beat people that use m&m with some difficulty. This isn't the system's fault, though - it's the user in question that isn't using a certain setting to their advantage and suffering for it. Once they figure it out I imagine things will get much more problematic, and only then can I really assess if telepathy is truly 'worse'. Worse in utility? Sure. Worse in combat? Not necessarily.

It's not just passive healing - things like beasts definitely make it more difficult to work down to 50% ego, especially when you're working on a high-damage slow-balance attack with psyvamp.

Glevich arrives following Esano Koicei, Scion of the Shattered Earth.
A large hippogriff with grey wings trots into sight from the west, shimmering with a weird green light.
6514h, 2631m, 3990e, 10p, 26640en, 12898w exkb-

You fall on your face as your legs are suddenly pulled out from under you.
6514h, 2631m, 3990e, 10p, 26640en, 12898w exkbp-

A tingling sensation ripples over your skin and you begin to sweat profusely.
6514h, 2631m, 3990e, 10p, 26640en, 12898w exkbp-

The bones of your left leg suddenly snap.
6514h, 2631m, 3990e, 10p, 26640en, 12898w exkbp-

The hole in your throat prevents you from swallowing.
6514h, 2631m, 3990e, 10p, 26640en, 12898w exkbp-

bond unite

Troika takes some salve from a vial and rubs it on her head.
6514h, 2631m, 3990e, 10p, 26640en, 12898w exkbp-

You are too stunned to be able to do anything.
6514h, 2631m, 3990e, 10p, 26640en, 12898w exkbp-

Lilian takes some salve from a vial and rubs it on her head.
6514h, 2631m, 3990e, 10p, 26640en, 12898w exkbp-

Glevich takes some salve from a vial and rubs it on his head.
6514h, 2631m, 3990e, 10p, 26640en, 12898w exkbp-

You are no longer stunned and have a brief stun immunity.
6514h, 2631m, 3990e, 10p, 26640en, 12898w exkbp-




.... >_> That was Telekinesis.

That was an illusion.

Oh yes, just pointing out that telekinesis (And the awesomeness of illusions) are pretty much designed to destroy curing systems. If you want to kill players, take TK and you've got it good. TP still needs a bit of work.

TK is still generally easier to cure, since you can see what's hitting you. A single DIAG and/or power cure attempt would get you out of this. No curing system should be a substitute for keeping a cool head and taking care of things yourself now and then.

Why would you want Jean Grey to die a horrible death?

I know that this thread is a couple of weeks old, and sorry to hijack it Dynami but I'd like to hear more about TP vs TK. I was TK very briefly and then switched to TP. I am roughly 10-15 credits away from transing it.

Now, assuming that I hit with a beast spit poison as part of my TP combo (two afflictions and ending with psyvamp), would it be possible to get a mindburst kill on my own? Are there other strategies to getting a TP insta?

Will cure systems still fire even if they discern that it's an illusion?

Secondly, looking at the TK skillset on the lore wiki:



And TP:



Is it that much easier to get someone at 12 burst blood vessels? People have tried for heartburst on me and have never successfully gotten one (or at least that I can recall.) Yes, TP does needs some buffs, it's true.

Is it worth skillflexing TK and using it?

I've never been TP or TK personally, of course, but having fought some of each, I'd say that TP is a good choice. It seems people are likely to recommend TK for the defense more than the offense. TP has the advantage of masked afflictions, so I feel it's better for offense. With the right illusions and good pacing, a TP can build up blood vessels on a target easily enough. The randomness of the vessels burst with each attack makes tracking them a little difficult, but most fighters are probably throwing in the periodic diagnose now and then, anyway.

I'd be willing to call you on this!

TP can burst now?

I knew I'd get something mixed up in that.

MindBurst Kill with the power of a single, deadly thought.
We technically can!
Yeah, you kinda mixed it up.