On a side note, Geomancer Demesnes -aren't- bad, once you realize one, very important thing:

We aren't meant to wipe out armies of people by ourself.


I do not know if this is true for Hartstone and Aquamancers, but Geomancer Demesnes are designed for area control, and support for your front line troops. Just like you can't win a war in real life just by carpet bombing everything, and -assuming- there won't be any survivors, you can't expect a single Geomancer to wipe out all opposition without any troops in the front lines, dealing with things personally.

In any given fight, my preferred position is standing on the Megalith of Doom, smiting folks from afar with Demesne effects, and things such as Stalker (Well, Stalker will be more valuable once I actually -have- it, but you get the idea). If I can slow down invaders in Dairuchi, by standing in Magnagora, that's a good deal. That is -powerful-. What non-mage guild can accomplish such a feat? Can Ur'Guard defend a village from the other side of the Basin? Nihilists?

Truth be told, I shouldn't be able to kill everyone in just a few hits, because my abilities are so wide reaching. Even though I probably can't kill most people, like Tuek or Narsrim, do you realize how rare it is for them to spend more than a few seconds in my Demesne, if they think I'm around? I've watched armies run through my Demesne along the Ackleberry Highway, spending as little time as possible in it, where previously, I've observed people just hanging out there chatting for ten or twenty minutes.

To compensate for this, we aren't that great in toe-to-toe combat. Well, guess what...we aren't -meant- to engage in that sort of combat in the first place. That's why most of our PvP attacks are ranged.

Ignite? Only works on other players, it works from a room away.

Boulderblast? Hits a group, again, range of one room.

Staff? I can hit you from ten rooms away, if I can draw a straight line of sight to you.

Runes? You can sling them at people in adjacent rooms. Or you can fuse them into your Demesne, to repeatedly, from any distance away.

Stalker? Hit anyone in your Demesne.

Along with all the other Demesne effects you can get going.

For all this, we still do a healthy amount of damage (100 - 150 with Rockslide, closer to 600 if they're prone...such as being knocked down by Tremors). 700 damage or so, with a Staff. These are mind bogglingly fantastic numbers, I'll grant you, but they're far better than any Ur'Guard can do, from across an ocean.


Now, all that said - I think there's a few things that we get shafted on. Poison hits everyone in our Demesne, currently, making it all but useless (Though, with the Declare/Defend thing, it's possible that will change, thus making it useful).

Stonewalls? Keeps everyone from tromping around...which hinders you, as much as helps. Burrow, you say? Well, that'd be good, save for the fact that -most- places you're going to have Melded are villages or the like, in order to defend them effectively...which means most of the area is Urban/Path, where you can't burrow.

Duststorm? Again, it affects everyone. When my Ur'Guard buddies can't find their way around because they can't see the exits, it ain't so handy.

Travel? I will -never- pay 3 Power to move a few rooms instantly. Not as limited are area as confined by a Demesne, anyways. Every time I've seen this power used to go to the enemy, the mage using it as died. Fantastic use of 3 Power, no, really.

Pollute, I'm given to understand, is another virtually useless ability, but that's outlined in more detail on another thread, and I simply don't know much about it, as I haven't Trans'd out Geomancy.

While I can't say for certain, I suspect other mage types have similar draw-backs. I know their version of Pollute is essentially as useless as ours. I'm given to understand the Hartstone version of 'Summon' not only costs more Power, you have to be in the room with the person to use it, and it sends them to the center of your Demesne. Aquamancers....well, aside from the poor luck of being part of Celest, I don't know of any of their draw backs. But really, isn't being in Celest bad enough in its own right?

All that said, I think people have expectations for mage types, that the coders simply never had planned. I think we're -meant- to be a support role, and not a be-all/end-all way to smite those would dare to defy our city/commune. I think we're just supposed to be crowd control. And I've seen Geomancers, who use their skills well, turn a battle that would very likely have been lost, into a victory with almost no casualties on our side.

Not that I won't beg for upgrades just like everyone else, but to say our Demesne -sucks- is a bit of an overstatement, I think.


PS: Sorry for adding on to the hijack of this post. I should like to point out that many Serenwilde abilities are fairly reliant on being in a forest. And there's only two forests. Serenwilde, and Glomdoring. That'll probably change in the future, but as it stands right now, that's a tad limited. And, well...."Oops, did I accidently taint out Estelbar....my bad!" Gee, now they gotta walk there, just like anyone else.

Not that I won't grump when I get Wisped, or Flowed to, or any number of other annoying things they can do to me.

But at least they don't have a monopoly on alchemy anymore! Woo! I Rowena!

Forgot a couple things Ixchilgal:

A Hartstone's demesne does 600 damage, with moving into trees, afflictions, paralysis.

An Aquamancers' demesne moves you around, strips waterwalk/waterbreathe so its hard to mvoe you around, stuns, and gives hyperinsomnia so you run out of fire vials insanely fast.

Geomancers demesne does damage, breaks a leg very rarely, and makes you prone.

Silvanus, you keep making posts that show you are ill-informed. Aquamancer's demesnes do not give "hyperinsomnia" (there is no such affliction, however there is an affliction called "hypersomnia" which makes it impossible to put up the insomnia defense, till you cure it with an herb). The Aquamancer demesne gives chill, if that is what you meant. Also, needle rain strips more then just waterwalk and waterbreathe (however not all at once, it is random and the only way to check is by defenses).

How come Silvanus isn't mentioning poison or hellfumes that make people hungry? I would consider hunger to be hella powerful in the long run there are no ways to prevent it and unconscious is incredibly nasty.

Simple answer: He doesn't know what he is talking about.

Simple answer: Not all of Magnagora is Viscanti. That'll hurt my allies also, plus it avoids Avenger.

And I meant to say hypothermia, I have no clue what I was thinking when I wrote that, of course I meant to say was freezing solid...

Ur'guard are immune to poison gas once they gain constitution and I believe that liches are also immune.

Liches aren't immune, and no, Ur'guard are not immune, because Murphy always gets hit by it.

And we have quite a few mugwump geos.

Geomancers are immune.

Well, we have mugwump nihilists too!

I can agree here, poison gas hits me while I'm both a lich and have constitution up, contituition only stops you from vomiting everywhere, not the other effects that poison gas gives you.

If constitution blocks the gas, all knights are immune to it, as is all of celest as I believe sacrements can give constitution defense. Add in how the skill intentionally ignores avenger and the geomancers who use it spend a lot of time pacified. And yes, any non-viscanti nihilist (viscanti nihilists suck) gets taken down by the gas quite quickly. Which is why it never gets used.

Why should Silvanus mention Poison, when I already had? He pointed out things I hadn't mentioned. Like, the damage capabilities of Hartstone Demesnes, and their afflictions, etc. Being that I already mentioned Poison, and why it wasn't viable, there was no need to bring it up.

As everyone has said ten times over, the reason that geomancer demesnes are not as powerful as aqua/hartstone is because geos have an instant kill whereas the other two do not. If it bothers you that much, speak with your envoy and see if you can get chasm (the best delayed instant kill ever) removed and then you can have a stronger demesne.

Being that I had a -huge- post about how Geomancer Demesne's aren't terrible, I fail to see the logic that I have a huge problem with the situation.

There's a few things I'd like changed, yes. -I- did not say we're the ones that suck. In fact, I said almost the exact opposite.

EDIT: Mind the personal remarks. ~Shiri~

I've never been affected by poison gas...I've had lich and constitution since the early days. I've been in demenses where it was cast (including Stangmar's just this last weekend) and while other people were getting hurt (an ur'guard without constitution) I wasn't....

Considering that poison gas doesn't work on people with constitution in any other IRE game, I'd place credits on me being right

You know what, Narsrim, you're welcome to be right ALL you want. That doesn't change the fact that I can stand in poison gas and be unharmed. kthxbai.

I was saying exactly what you said (which was being argued by others): CONSTITUTION BLOCKS POISON GAS.

EDIT: Mind the personal remarks. ~Shiri~