Hello!

I was a fairly active combatant when Lusternia first started up, but I've lost my system and don't remember anything but the most basic facts about Lusternian combat. I was considering getting back into the game, and had a few basic questions about the state of Lusternian combat. I'd be returning from Achaea, where I'm a rather good fighter and have a moderate stack of artifacts without anything too ridiculous. I can also code easily enough. The learning curve shouldn't pose a problem, but the cost might.

First question: What skills do you need to be capable of fighting without a crippling disadvantage? For example, in Achaea you need to Transcend your relevant class skills, Avoidance, and Survival before you can really consider fighting at a respectable level. What is the barrier of entry in Lusternia? Tri-Trans seems given, but what defensive abilities do you need? Can you scrape by with some bare minimum? Would some classes destroy you without some specific ability?

Second question: Assuming a competent pilot, are the generic systems-for-sale strong enough? In Achaea, there's a large gap between people who jam the default systems and know what they're doing. A number of the systems people sell have glaring weaknesses. Essentially, would I need to code my own system, or could I theoretically lean heavily on a system I'm not familiar with?

Third question: How heavily artied is the average top-tier combatant? I'm used to having all relevant abilities and ~1500cr worth of artifacts making you solidly average, but I've heard that's less common in other games. Are there dozens of people with tens of thousands of credits worth of artifacts, or is it just one or two here and there?

Fourth question: Is there a decent amount of 1v1 and small group combat (4v4 or smaller), or is most of the out-of-arena fighting done in larger groups (7+ to a side)?

Thanks for any and all help.

Of big for-sale systems, there is m&m for Mudlet, which is good. Each established org (usually) has their pet system also. That's a requirement, through and through.

You will need to Green/Gedulah in Low/Highmagic, which is part way through. You pretty much need to have focus mind also, focus spirit (the discipline trans) is useful. You'll want some if not all of Combat, the more the better. Depending on guild, you don't even need Tri-Trans sometimes. Some trans-skills are pretty unused or considered useless.

My druid character has a 200 credit rune of demesnes, and I'm not sure what else would help terribly with my combat. How many credits you need varies widely from class to class, though increased damage via magic-damage runes is nice.

Most non-jumping combat is done in fairly large groups.

Thanks!

I suppose I should be a bit more specific. I'm a Mugwump Geomancer with the following AB:



Regarding systems, I'm well aware that they're a requirement; I was wondering if M&M is strong and stable. Basically, I know they exist, I'm wondering how good they are.

I hear M&M's pretty good, and it'll put you on a level playing field with most midbie combatants (since they'll probably be using it too), but if you want to be top tier I'd advise using any bought system as a base to tinker about with - that's my usual methodology.

As for skills, tri-Trans is a must for any class. Highmagic/Lowmagic up to Gedulah/Green will get you out of softlocks, which are embarrassing as hell to get caught in. Highmagic/Lowmagic also reduce magic damage to you (up to a max of 33% at Trans), so it's advisable to sink as many lessons into it as you can afford - ditto for Resilience, which buffs physical resists as well as poison shrugging. You'll need up to tumble in Environment to get out of sticky situations. Focus mind in Discipline is necessary (Discipline rank also lessens focus time and increases power regen, so that's another good choice to trans as early as possible). Combat is very useful for dealing with warriors, so sink at least a few creddies into that. Conglutination has been moved from the trans Planar skill down to - what, expert? - so get up to that, and off-prime battles will be a breeze for you, virtually no risk at all. Beasts can also provide some very useful bashing buffs, but that's something to think about when you've got all of the above.

For class specific advice, I strongly recommend against playing mugwump. Eq/balance bonuses have been nerfed since the Good Old Days, and they're way too squishy to make up for it. As a Geomancer I'd recommend either viscanti (high resists, good int, good con) or, ideally, illithoid. They have higher con, comparable int, excellent dex for stancing, and - crucially - the illdrain ability, which allows you to massively buff your ego (which will be negligible due to very low charisma), which is incredibly useful for telepaths and telekinetics in particular.

Actually it's just 9DMP.

CODE

Enchantment        Magicproof         Magical         10
**Magic                               Magical         9**
Nature             Torc               Magical         5
                                      Magical         24 (24)               22%

Things you'll need, dependent on class:

-2 trans guild skills (maybe a 3rd) (1715*3=5145 lessons)
-Combat up to ShieldParry or WeaponParry (You'll want to trans it eventually for more stances/shieldstun, but parry is a decent enough start) (Master 50%) (roughly 240 lessons or so)
-Discernment up to potionlist, magiclist is nice but probably not required unless M&M requires it (33% master) (roughly 210 lessons or so)
-Discipline up to Focus Mind (Fabled 0%) (912 lessons)
-Environment up to tumble (Unless you've got acrobatics, in which case you only need up to rockclimb) (Expert 0%) (423 lessons)
-lowmagic: Green (gifted) (300ish lessons?)
-Highmagic: Gedulah (virtuoso) (600 lessons)-- only need one or the other High/lowmagic; might have to take one based on class? (Geomancer=Highmagic, if I remember right?)
-Influence: Not 'required', per se, for combat, but for leveling up on your own there's no better way at the moment. I'd reccomend up to divert to be useful in revolts (gifted 50%), or up to superego which gives you two of each influencing attack, and a nice drop in ego lost during influencing (expert 50%) (about 350 lessons/about 520 lessons)
-Planar: Conglutination is a must, and will all but eliminate your XP lost when dying off-prime. Expert 0% (423 lessons)
-Resilience: Nice to have (gives DMP against cutting/blunt?), but not 'required'. Needed to be top-tier, but if not spending 300cr is more important than having extra points of DMP, that's a decision for you to make. Get other, useful skills first, IMO.

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Rough lesson cost: 8303 lessons (1,384 bound credits/976.8 unbound credits with conversion bonus).
-counts tri-trans, highmagic, influence to divert.

Tradeksills are another deal entirely, not needed but extremely beneficial to have the trans skill (usually).

As for artifacts, the pig nose (that's a dingbat artifact, roughly 225cr at current prices) is pretty standard apparel for combatants, and runes of absorption are also used (500cr), although neither is needed to get into combat. Golden soap (250cr?) is also really useful, although sap and ecoplasm aren't as big an issue now as they used to be. Warriors need all sorts of runes, but for the rest of us we don't 'need' them, although damage runes help in group combat. Very few classes kill with damage nowadays-- it's mostly instakills.

To go from the above to 'top-tier', you'd need to add trans combat, resil, magic,and discipline (adding another... 5,000 lessons, roughly, or just over 830cr).

Very few classes kill with damage nowadays, but remember that a lot of fights are huge brawls where you spawn your damage attack and murder people that way. So don't ignore damage.

Generally:

Discernment stuff are nice, but not really required to get into combat. If you can micro manage your vials/rings properly, it's certainly not a problem. Similarly, influence is all but unneeded. Superego and divert are icing on the cake.

Getting parry is important, yes, but only because it's relatively low in the combat skill. Not sure if you can just parry with the geomancy staff, gotta ask another mage about that. Stancing is the more useful ability, but to get the most out of it, you have to nearly trans combat.

Tailoring is a good trade to trans as a geomancer, because you get access to superior armour at that point, which is very helpful against warriors, and to a lesser extent monks. Without it, you'll find yourself struggling against warriors more.

Focus mind is actually, imo, not a must for combat. But that also depends on who you regularly fight. Against telepaths, it'll ease your load a great deal. Generally a good skill to have, but not something you'll absolutely need to prevent getting destroyed. Focus mind is a discipline skill, however, and discipline also determines how fast you regenerate power, which is far more important, in my opinion. The difference between a power regen every 15+ seconds and every 8 seconds is huge.

Melder stuff:

As a melder, there's a rune to add slots to your enemy/ally lists, and another to add the max number of rooms you can meld at once. Both of these are artifacts that will boost your usefulness in a fight.

As a melder, "Illusions" in discernment (the realitycheck ability) and the chopping ability in environment are quite important. I think Illusions (Your guild skillset, not the ability I just mentioned) has something to break false environments too, but I heard realitycheck is superior. Not very sure about that. Chopping is needed to remove saplings to break a druid's meld, though. While most of your fellow fighters will have these skills, it's usually left to the melder to handle all meld stuff, like bringing down the enemy meld and setting his own up etc. Also, you'll want these skills when you're fighting 1v1 against another melder, or they'd be able to break your meld and you can't theirs etc.

Mugwump can work well in certain situations. As a geomancer, you have poison based staffs, which for some cities can be hard to find dmp for, and also additional offensive boost to your staffing. With +eq and the high int, you'll get an additional oomph to your staffing, which can be quite sweet, but the lack of tankiness may be a problem. I've never been a mugwump though, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Human is an all-around good race. I'm not sure what the stat distribution for a mage human is, but I imagine it would be rather balanced. +xp is always nice, anyway.

Illithoid for TK may be a good choice, for forcefield if nothing else. Keeping an illithoid's max ego up, however, takes grind. But well, this is a grinding game, afterall. For reference, an illithoid with 9 charisma (from temporary stat boost abilities) can reach a maximum of 7000 ego at level 90+.

Agree with almost all of this. The ally/enemy artifact thing isn't necessary, you can manage your enemy lists externally and apply the proper enemy statuses using demesne sense and watch to see who goes in and out of your meld.

Mugwump isn't a total joke option, but it's not the best either. Human is always okay, and the xp IS nice, but Illtithoid is a really good combination with TK, and you get to totally ignore influence if you want to.

Thank you, everyone. The information is greatly appreciated. It'll give me a very solid starting point as I start working my way back.