Lyco has no disadvantage. He has literally hit me with pin-leg on the first attack, which rends to deal 250 bleeding per pin. He can start off stacking bleeding that does more damage to me in a short period of time than Ixion (who rarely if ever gets pin leg and just deals some nasty damage). Pin leg also hinders you and gives a pierced nerve so you can't just move. He can easily pin lock someone, which is his sole means to kill. As a warrior, it might not be so easy in field plate or full plate with Puela, it sure freakin is without either. This isn't to say Lyco is invincible, he's not. However, his ability to compete with elite fighters is amazing considering he doesn't cure worth a crap. I diagnosed him the entire time he sparred Geb a couple times and ne never cured half of what was dealt to him - but he didn't need to he could just keep pinning so it wasn't feasible to mount an offense.

And this garbage about "low health" is so misplaced. While surged, Lyco has plenty of health and plenty of mana. Top this in with a level 2 sip bonus and he's tankier in full plate than most warriors by far.

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If you die EASILY in the first few rounds, then you are going to die EASILY regardless. How hard is it to hit the pet, run, heal up, repeat? It doesn't take power, it doesn't even take that much time. I've done it to Amaru (just to point of making both his angel and handmaiden shield) in the arena and it was a HUGE success. And if you want to be technical, I've instantly slain the Grim Horror several times with criticals.

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And yes, I agree that toning down the helm would be worthwhile instead of just removing them all, but people will likely argue over that. The first step I feel is to start by removing the wounding bonus from the helm or reducing it to no more than +5-10%. This could be compensated by making it give like +2 con, +1 dex. The only problem I see is that you can take a high precision weapon, add level 3 wounding runes, and then the helm.

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And just on a side note to something mentioned above, the Handmaiden only hits with blackout a fraction of the time. I believe all champion entities hit every 10 seconds. Blackout hits about 20% of the time. That's once a minute and healed by allheale. It isn't nearly as bad to deal with (and I speak from dealing with it relatively easily) as being hit with say pin leg/impale every f-ing combo.

Having just come under possession of the champ helm, I would have to agree that it is indeed an amazing artifact that gives warriors an incredible boost to their offense. If you look at it in terms of value, the helm alone is worth roughly 3600cr in wounding bonuses alone (the equivalent of two level 3 wounding runes at 900cr each on EVERY weapon you wield, but for explanatory purposes just counting two weapons) plus an increase to damage, an increase to attack speed, its a 90/90 helm(which is nice) and allows for a 75% poison afflict rate. The helm is frankly to much, and I can say this with as little bias as possible.

I would have to say in all honesty that the only champ arties that are relatively balanced are the mage and druid artifacts. I am of the opinion that a champion should already be able to compete on a decent level with his opponents, and, while I personally feel that maybe a -slight- bonus should be given to that champion (as he's assumed to be put in more dangerous situations more often) that the current state of guardian and warrior champ arties is a bit too much.

To be honest I have no suggestions for how to balance out the champion pets, it's quite a difficult way to do it aside from just simply removing all combat bonuses(though should this be done, guardians should still have the ent for rp purposes imo.)

As for champ helm, I have some suggestions, though understand I dont mean for all of these to be given at once, but perhaps one or two of the following.

- Grants a +2 bonus to constitution
-Notifies the bearer when a guild/commune/city enemy enters the area
-gives a 5-10% damage reduction to the wearer(if this, I would say no other bonuses)
-Increases poison afflict to 80%, and grants a 10% bonus to wounding (again, this would be enough alone)
-Allows the warrior to warcry once per rl hour, stunning enemy's in the room for 3-5 seconds(lone ability imp)
-While in the room with their champion, fellow guildmembers will have a 3-5% reduction in damage
-Gives a chance to periodically resist mental afflictions(checked after shrug rate or immunity has failed, in the case of venom afflictions


Again, these are not all meant to be applied, just some idea's for boosts that could be in replacement of the current ones, since I feel the champ helms as they are simply are too powerful, but then again, Im just a guy who likes balance, so my opinion probably doesnt matter


EDIT: ORRR, just remove them all entirely

I'm just going to repeat again for emphasis:

One potential nasty affliction once per minute on average from a creature than be slain in under a single minute is just not comparable to something that cannot be blocked, stopped, or killed... I'll admit I may be somewhat bias, but honestly, I have zero problems with any guardian entity because I just kill the damn thing. It dies in under 45-60 seconds.

To Diamante-

I always thought the Champion items were stupid. If the champion needs to rescue someone they should just get the ability.

No, Champs don't need any more buffs. Remove them altogether, I don't see how Murphy can say that they should fix the arties when only 3 people have them when in actuality we have 16 champion artifacts in all. 1 person possessing an overpowered skill or artifact is more than enough, 16 altogether is way too much. It would be simply easier to just remove them altogether.

if you believe narsrim he thinks that ONLY the champ helms are overpowered in regards to wounding knights.

SO, out of all available champins, that leaves me and lyco who make full use of those helms.

Also, If you're doing nothing but attacking someone's ent, there is NO way you should survive a good offence in under a minute. If i saw you killing my champ pet i'd be killing all your ents, or even just killing you and setting you up for a kill....

I agree that armour shouldn't affect wounding damage as much as it does, greatrobes need a boost of some sort.

Just make the champ arties give immunity to karma curses at the expense of karma blessings!

Even better, allow someone to use their suspect up into giving the champion a contract of some sort, where the champion can perhaps summon the offender into a locked room, or a small area in which to lay down the punishment on the offender. -drool- now i'm just dreaming.

Again, Im for the removal of all champ arties altogether, and rescue just being an innate ability. Those were just some random Idea's I had out there if such a thing could not be done, but the idea's there are not nearly as overpowering as the helm in its current state, but yeah
DOWN WITH THE ARTIES!

bah guys, don't you get it, champ arties are an innate part of the game, an original lusternian idea. Instead of removing them, edit them to be more balancing, its nice flavour for the game.

I agree that Warriors Champ helm is bit overpowered now.

I have 10% more damage and 33% more woundings thanks to it. I'm a bit faster, 0.2 seconds per swing.

I would be for lowering wounds to 10%.

I think they should stay and have the rescue ability be part of them, but lose their combat powers. That way moggy/maiden/grim/shuck still exist and so forth, they just don't really do much of anything. (The power cost could be revoked then too.) It's just impressive being able to say you have the Pearl Staff of Rushing Tides or whatever the hell it's called, even if it doesn't give you combat buffs.

The thing about the Champion Artifacts though is...

It gives a major incentive to becoming Champion.. such that players really try to get good so they stand a chance of being elected.

It also weighs it a little more on the side of the rescuer. If you're rescuing a guild member from a team.. it's surely nice to have a little bit more of an arsenal when you take their place.

Is that like the major incentives you get for becoming Guild Administrator?

ok guys, to be honest there needs to be something worth being champion, rescuing lowbies who are in celest and frantically trying to escape isn't much fun, and you tend to lose a lot more XP as a champ.

Hence, you get something to make up for it...i like that idea. Otherwise, why ever rescue anyone?

Because you are their champion, sworn to protect those who of your guild who cannot do so for themselves. The RESCUE ability is unique to Lusternia. The buffs, however, are all to common with Lusternia. More are not needed just because you have the status of Champion.

as a champion you don't really get any more power than another GR 19 in the running of things, you are pretty much head of combat for the guild, and a whipping boy for XP loss if you are doing your job properly.

It should at least be a good utility artifact if nothing else, i liked seeing guild enemies enter the area.

Useful utility artifact sounds best for me too.

It is useful without any other effects besides rescue. Rescue is the single best means of protecting any member of your organization on the fly. I do not really see a great need for it to give any other benefits to the champion.

Now, I can think of an ability that would perhaps complete a champion’s rescue ability. The ability to track to the corpse of his charges. Would help in retrieving items for his guildmate and/or in facilitating the resurrection of the person downed. It is not a needed ability, but it would be one welcomed by me.

Is is just me or dosn't it seem like rescue should be a skill or normal command, rather than accessible only by a helmet

Ideas:

-Make rescue a champion guild priv
-Make the weapons and armour normal weapons and armour, but make them have high stats.
-Make the pets have less of an effect and damage.
-Make it so that champions cannot be karma cursed, nor can they be karma blessed (though I'm kind of iffy about that one)

And never actually get rid of them, they're a unique thing about Lusternia, and I loved the idea when we started, everyone wanted to be the champ just because it was a cool artifact.