Ok this is mainly for champions and those who fight them.

in my opinion, the Guardians ones are the best, followed by geomancers followed by warrior. last i heard warriors one didn't even work. The mages and hartstone staff does more damage and makes melding a lot faster.

The guardians ones (specifially the handmaiden because i've been on the business end of that more times than i'd like to count first with elaria and then with Ethelon0 i believe are the best. The handmaiden by my count gives blackout (one of th emost deadly afflictions because you can't see what attack happens to you next) paralyse, does damage (i've been slain by it) and i dont know what else.

The Nil Grim horror is similair I believe.

Tuek's cat gives aeon, Im not sure what else possibly mana leech and sleep? Im not sure about that.

Whats everyones opinions? It seems whoever has the handmaiden seems to get a lot better in combat. I know the champion artifacts are meant to make you a lot more powerful by the way so no need to point that out.

Please keep idiocy and smart-assing to yourself.

I wish I had the arti-cudgel, so I could see if it's worth it. I know I already meld hella fast, I bet you do too, ravin, due to mugwump. Mugwump L2Eq regen+lightning+cudgel=ew.

I'm comin' for you citera!

yeah aris, my meld time is getting close to my illusion time (getting there heh) But its real quick with both. Doesn't necessarily help in 1v1 combat though, althgouh damage is nice.

Ravin, I killed people as easily without the Handmaiden, but yes, the guardian artifacts are the best but with Patcheo, Grim, the Handmaiden....Aeon is far worse in my opinion than Blackout and the Grim gives Blackout more than the Handmaiden. The downfall is the Guardian minions can of course be turned against them...which I've yet to see anyone try on me atleast. They also get lost easily and cost 10 power to summon/resummon which is annoying cause I lose mine alot

problem with turning ents against you is charismatic smile and charismatic aura. not sure how they work but it seems to defeat the purpose, although i did stagger onto a good rune combination the other day to stop that. Perhaps itd have been better to have a herb cure disloyatly because herb_balance is easily disturbed rather than sippping balance, as far an i know I may be wrong, but that soff topic so no more on that,

your hangmaiden makes killing a lot easier, a good user of the angel is someone to behold. notice im not screaming nerf the angels though, becuase they are balanced. it Is a lot easier to get someone aeoned with a handmaiden blackingout, especially as an aslaran.

Aeon is most definitely not worse then Blackout. It is simple to cure, and easily triggered to sip quicksilver (Since she aeons slower then quicksilver balance). Blackout will hide any attack or affliction you give, so it is not uncommon to come out of blackout both aeoned and entangled, and have some demon/angel afflictions as well.

Thats why i ranked it higher Tuek. Blackout is a real pain.

Handmaiden==awesome.

Being able to kill at half mana doesn't mean too much when you do no damage, read apostates/malignists for those of you who've played the other IRE games.

Then play with the handmaiden who can surpass most people's healing rates alone, on someone who can kill at half mana, and you have much pain.

Blackout is four seconds, which you can still attack through and Diag (last I checked)...Aeon, especially with a crap laod of ents hitting can be much more of a hassle. Guess it's based on your healing reflexes...for mine Blackout doesn't hurt me...Aeon is still as annoying as ever

You can already give aeon with tarot. Just as soon as you see the Handmaiden black someone out, toss aeon tarot with enigma (fool isn't necessary), and they won't even know that you did anything at all. Blackout is even better in teams then aeon as well. Hell, start soulless or judgement when they are blackedout, and they'll miss the first message completely (in the case of soulless, there is no second chance).

Blackout is the singular most powerful affliction. It hides your prompt. It hides any action you do (attacks), so you don't know if you actually did it or not. It hides anything they do to you, whether it be afflictions, damage, entangling, defense stripping. It also has no cure, but it does have a rather short duration.

Edit: A mugwump Nihilist with the Nil Grim Horror, and hexes, could probably hit you with 3 hexes (afflictions) at least, while you are blacked out, in addition to anything their demon does while you are blacked out. You wouldn't even know you were hexed, for all intents and purposes, it looks like they just stood there.

Another edit: But hexes isn't that great, and Nihilists with hexes are in poor shape, since they would lack soulless, aeon, and hangedman.

Last Edit: And for the sake of your reflexes, Ethelon, it matters what your opponent does while you are blacked out. If they don't do anything, and don't take advantage of it because they don't know how, or just don't, of course you won't have problems. If they are intelligent, and know how to use black out, it is very effective, much more so then Aeon.

Well, I'm known mainly to fight alone, so the whole point on groups being strong with it doesn't apply to me. Also, I've gone fights where my angel just refuses to hit with Blackout...happened a few times today infact. The Grim has a higher rate of Blackout than the Handmaiden I believe, so let's worry about that. Also, Wanning with Patcheo is as a good as blackout and aeon.

But Ethelon, it is good for only that. I can wane while Patchou aeons. You can aeon when the Handmaiden blacks out for the same effect. However, you could start soulless when the Handmaiden blacks out (One initial message for the start of soulless, the second message kills), or judgement, or your angel could afflict them, and when you toss tarot, generally you'll give aeon and something else (Love, Moon, Lust, Hangedman) due to enigma.

Also, Patchou does Aeon as often as the Nil Grim Horror and Handmaiden do Blackout. She has 4 attacks. Aeon, Knock of balance, Mana drain, and she scratches you for about 100 bleeding. The Handmaidens/Horrors backup attacks are better, namely the paralyze. Paralyse is better then my manadrain, because guess what? It takes 250 mana to focus body! Doh! Not the mention the added effect of disabling them. The Horror and Handmaiden also do more damage then Patchou's bleeding.

Actually, Patchou knocking off Balance is as good as Paralyse in some cases....no matter how you look at it, there are advatages and disadvatages to each depedning upon the situation.

Errr.. paralyse is far superior to knocking off balance, because for one, it takes longer to focus out of paralysis then the balance steal. And two, paralyze is the equivalent of doing a mana drain AND balance steal in one attack.

Also, don't forget, that if your target is an equilibrium using class, chances are they'll attack (using eq) then Patchou knocks off balance (now they have neither), then balance comes back (Hey, its REALLY short), a few more seconds go by, (equilibrium regains). What did that just accomplish?

Well, I get out of Paralysis in 2 seconds about and I recover balance at the same rate (Aslaran)....not, if I were a Human, I'd regain balance in 4 seconds, Tae'dae?, well, that would be longer. Paralysis at it's longest is 3.5 seconds I believe and 250 mana drain is very little...as I said, it's per the situation

Transcendent discipline is approximately a 2.4 second focus body time. Also, you have never had Patchou near you, how can you say it is 2 seconds of balance? Using an attack, and having your balance stolen are not the same thing, and different attacks use different lengths of balance. Patchou takes my balance for something like a second or less.

Edit: I wish Patchou drained 250 mana with her mana drain attack. Her drain is less then that, or about that, so how can you complain that 250 mana drain to focus body is a very little drain?

I was basing it off average balance recovery, sorry if I was wrong, don't bite my head off Tuek.

Average balance recovery doesn't really apply to an attack that steals balance.

Anyway, most everyone knows that the Handmaiden and Grim Horror are far superior to Patchou. But can you pet the Grim Horror and the Handmaiden? No. And Patchou gets all aggro on anyone that attempts to pet her but me.

make the mage staff do a charybdon or an othala affliction every time it hits........Yes it may be overpowered but considering our mix of skills its be rather nice to have and similair to the guardian pets (in my opinion) but im biased

You are both very biased, and very foolish.