I've first played Lusternia during the latter part of 2010, and before this game, I haven't really played RPG games (unless you count those small, random ones I encounter here and there).

And, so..about late last month, I started having some interest in combat and had asked for some of my friends' help so I could start learning. Well, as I got oriented more and more with the combat-related stuff, I realized it's not something you can pull off that easily with the same tactics as button-mashing in PS games and such.

So! I have quite some questions, and I'll be glad to have some help here and there!
(Please don't thwap me if I sound so ignorant in most of them. )

• I never paid attention to balance and equilibrium before, except for timed actions back in nexus, though through that I've noticed that the time it takes for me to gain equilibrium for the different defenses I put up was varied as opposed to being a constant n seconds between actions. Since I also have psionic balance to consider aside from normal balance and equilibrium, I thought it best if I had an inkling to their recovery times and their interactions and stuff.

--> From the wiki, it was mentioned that Substratus takes 4s to reopen, Superstratus takes 6s, and Id has a base of 5s but slows depending on current ego. For the Id balance, how does the slowing work? Is it dependent on current ego %, and how slow can it get (for example, if my current ego drops precariously near 50%, how long should I expect my Id balance to return)? Also, when using psionic balances, what's the status of normal balance and equilibrium? When I try to do an action that consumes equilibrium (these are the ones wherein you get the 'you have recovered equilibrium' message, right?) when I have used at least one psionic channel and have not yet opened my link to it yet, I am told that I must recover equilibrium first. So, does this mean that equilibrium is consumed once I use a psionic channel and I can't use equilibrium requiring/consuming actions until all my psionic channels are open again?
--> Dissolve is said to require balance..does that mean I must have balance to use it, but it does not necessarily consumes it? I'm wondering because I wanted to know if it would be good to attach it to my staff attack - whether there's a delay after dissolve before I can use my staff or not. I'm trying to add my turtle's attack with dissolve + staff, too, if it's okay, but I don't know if these three affect each other in a way that I can't fire them all at once.
--> How long does beast balance take to recover?
--> I've just glanced at the Illusions skills and noticed that Illusion can be woven off-balance and off-psionic balance. So I can, let's say, fire an illusion after twirling my staff or after using all three psionic channels, and probably in between opening of the channels? Also, is this only true for the Illusion skill, or does it apply to the more advanced ones like Improved?
--> Can you have balance without equilibrium and vice versa?

• Illusions! I've never had much interaction with them, except for the occasional sparkles, scripts, simple fun illusions, and the ones like Phantom and Claws. I've only had an encounter with a woven illusion that made people with curing triggers to use cleanse whenever they entered the room the illusion was woven into. I've read in a forum topic earlier that one can, for one, use illusion to help hinder people from curing telepathic actions you send. I'll appreciate it if anyone can give me say, some examples on such a use since I haven't seen illusions used that way except in that room trigger once.

• Some TP skills I can't 100% orient myself with:
--> Dementia. I've looked at the wiki and asked my friends, and was told it alter look/ql. I haven't tested it out yet, but I can't seem to imagine its impact on a target, especially for one that requires you to be at least Mythical + 33% to have it.
--> Addiction. I've read that it causes you to consume potions faster and slows sip balance recovery, but how does this work? Do you keep sipping potions, and how long does sip balance take to recover if you have this affliction?
--> Deadening. By 'slows focus balance recovery', what exactly does it slow? (I don't know if focus body/mind/spirit have different balances or so..)
--> Dominate/Mass Dominate. Which actions can I -not- dominate someone to do? (Excluding those that he/she cannot possibly do even on his/her own, like casting spells he/she doesn't have.)

I think these are the concerns that kept crossing my mind in the past days or so. Would really be glad if people can help me out. Thanks!

Funny, I saw 88 views but only one reply. I must either be crazy, or my questions were too long. Thanks so much for having the time to read and reply!

Correct. Most abilities (eg. staff) require both balance and equilibrium but only use one, but dissolve is unusual in that it only requires balance and can be used while off-equilibrium. Thus, you can staff and then dissolve right away.

Staff then dissolve? Considering that what dissolve only requires is balance, I can also use it ahead of staff, right? Beast attack can be sent together with staff, with no seeming delay in-between. Will the same thing occur if I had the three in this order (in a single firing) - dissolve+beast+staff or beast+dissolve+staff?

(on Dementia) Useless.

I've had -somehow- similar reactions from others with Dementia and, for that reason, I cannot understand why it needs such a high TP skill level (it's the last skill before Transcendent, too).

If you sip health/mana/bromides while addicted and on potion balance, it takes 8 seconds to return instead of 4.

I see. Since telepathic afflictions are masked, other than the change itself in potion balance recovery, is there a way besides diag/firstaid which can detect if you are addicted? It seems handy if you want to hinder curing, but I don't know if it's easy to detect and cure.

Generally anything that would have a permanent and unstoppable effect is unforceable (eg. suicide, forget, quit, heartstop, agree - not an exhaustive list). Forcing someone to attack a mobile will work, but the mobile will attack you instead of them. There are also a handful of skills that are non-forceable (eg. trueheal).

Ah. So even then, a dominated action is still the responsibility of the telepath who forced it on someone. I've only had heartstop as an example so far, and things like ordering someone's entourage to attack them or forcing them to give out something/say something seems to work. (Which reminds me, isn't that form of domination a concern for theft? I practiced it when a companion of mine acquisitio'ed an item I needed for a quest and he went mindless the moment that I needed the item, I had to dominate him quite a few times since he had some items with names similar to the one I was looking for.)

No, because dissolve consumes balance. Staff requires both.

Kether is one skill before Trans in Highmagic and it's not particularly useful either. Depth in skill ranks doesn't equal usefulnes.

Most TP affs are focus mind/pennyroyal cures. Spam it a few times after every attack. Systems typically also have timers to determine when you're taking too long to recover vial balance.

Selfishness in Discipline is in the game to counter this.

So other than the time consideration itself, you don't get a message saying that you are addicted.

A follow-up question! Speaking of mental afflictions, phantom's effect is to give random mental afflictions, right? Do they keep stacking while phantom is active and how long does the phantom usually last? (Same with Claws)

No, you can't dissolve then staff, because staff requires both balance and equilibrium. You have to staff first.

Phantom lasts 90 seconds and keeps giving afflictions/damage every time it ticks.

Was not aware that dissolve consumed balance. Corrected.

It does, and you don't always want to staff (or do any other equilibrium taking thing) before dissolving because that will extend you're recover time before you can do something else. Dissolve by itself consumed balance and recovers it very quickly.

If you're trying to dissolve a lot of people, just dissolve.

In a 1v1 fight or something you could cast phantom then dissolve though, since you want to do that anyway.

So..I should take away dissolve from my staff, then. Thanks!

Okay..back to illusion. I can wove it off-psionic balance..but does it interfere in any way to any balance/eq recovery? Was wondering if you could somehow fire them every now and then together and in-between telepathic attacks without having to worry about extended balance/equilibrium recovery time.

I'm curious, as a Bard, how can I keep my targets from moving? I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas. Oh, and also what illusions are useful to cast? Aside from normal ones that make you writhe, etc.

Oh, and my pony doesn't seem to want to attack other people in the arena.

Nicholo:

I'm curious, as a Bard, how can I keep my targets from moving? I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas. Oh, and also what illusions are useful to cast? Aside from normal ones that make you writhe, etc.

Oh, and my pony doesn't seem to want to attack other people in the arena.

Your pony is not attacking people? A beast by itself will not be able to attack anything without being taught "battle" at which point you can BEAST ORDER ATTACK or some such, it will only work on beast balance. Beasts are definitely not there to help you in this regard, stick to the better stuff!

As to how to illusions and hindering. Your illusions will primarily be glamours passives, if you have a use for an active one you can maybe mess around with things to throw off curing balance but that is questionably useful.

As for how to hold someone down, this is dated but its what I reviewed to start my process of bardness. Look for logs from Noctu, he has them against aramel, geb, asmodea, ilyarin, vathael, and I believe a FFA log. Since his time your songs have all UPGRADED in use and strength really. Read his posts on it as well as he discusses his thoughts on things. As a bard I had one thing I have told every other bard who asked me... USE ALOT OF ECHOES AND TIMERS IF YOU KNOW HOW. Knowing when sixth sense is about to die or when they are about to have earwort available is huge. Most of bard combat is basically a game of picking one of your victory conditions and trying to balance giving the time for it to work and keeping people from evading it.

A good example of this is that while you can tumble away from a bard when you get earwort, if the bard causes you to writhe or the off bal song hits first you wont be able to escape before they blanknote. Timing things like this gets complicated mind you and things like pfifth will also mess with this (pfifth increases earache or causes it if they dont have it). The better you get at tracking these things the more potent you will be.

Hope that helps :)

Thank you very much, looking over them now. :D

Edit: A silver speckled, sleek pony with golden feathered wings stoically refuses to attack that person. Anyone know why?

I figured out that the beast referring to attack players with BEAST ORDER ATTACK is an envoy thing, but I have a new question now! TK Mages, how do you deal with them? They make me want to cry with vessels+stun+blackout, the last being a big screwer for bards since they can't see earwort consumption. I feel really noob-ie. How do you deal with them?

And another thing, are there any Harbinger combat logs out there, aside from Noctu?

What is this about beast attack?

Well, you can use timers if need be. Generally, if you see your attacks not doing anything, blanknote again. Besides that, use timers.

There should be some logs. If you want to come spar me (during which I won't be too outrageously hindery), I can give you pointers.

Count 7ish seconds from when you blanknote.

To deal with them you have some options depending what they will let you do, for instance if you octave you can egovice but this has the same limits as trying to auric anyone else solo. Other options can vary depending on tertiary, but since you are illusions you have hypnoticpattern for one. The best way to deal with a TK is to give yourself some time. You may have to crowcaw or deadlypattern (if they arent blind deadlypattern will also stun) to give yourself a gap, but this is generally very helpful and epilepsy from it can mean they wont be able to tumble. You will have to play with when to use octave and the best time to caw from there of course.

You have an off bal song, an off eq illusion, and active reliable stuns. They are definitely not easy to fight but they are doable. Sadly alot of this comes down to practice and timing which I cannot really post here.

Thanks muchly, but would anyone also happen to know what defs DeadlyPattern strips? I heard they were real few, which is pretty good.

I'm fairly sure it's bigger then the alteraura list. I'm willing to bet its anything but the highpower defs and toggleable defs.

Problem with relying on Noctu's logs for Harbinger is that his strategy tended to revolve around heavy damage from mana/ego drain with the help of old-style nightshadeblues. (Which I believe isn't anywhere near as strong as it used to be). So, trying to carbon copy the tactics might not work so well. The hindering, movement and echoes sure!

Actually it's just as strong as before for bleeding. Nightshade blues was reduced to increasing mana use by 50% (to a total of 150%) instead of 100% (to 200%) . However, bloodycaps makes bleeding cost proportionally more mana, so the slack is picked up. Your minorsixths will do a bit less damage, but that's not so bad.

Anybody know what defenses DeadlyPattern strips? Nothing org specific, right?