That avatar is wicked hawt, man up Daevos your just mad your avatar does not scare people, but your name Does...so...you win
love-mimi

Here are some ideas to throw around:

Limit demesnes to local area period (no melding from area-to-area)

Change max size to be something far less than it is (50 rooms?)

I personally don't find this avatar as disturbing as Murphy's last, fortunately.

On topic, the demesnes will not be removed completely, ever, I believe Estarra has said. So it's only different variations of demesnes that would be considered...

I agree with most of what has been said. Firstly, holding a demesne is certainly not easy, as it can be kind of hard to keep a demesne whole if you're fighting somewhere. Not to mention, if you die, all the effects go away and have to be reset.

Secondly:



I don't see anything wrong with that. Mages are useful if they have 10 minutes ahead of time to prepare? The horrors

That said, demesnes really are annoying, as one who has to hold them and fight in them regularly. I'm just not sure what could be done about it that would be fair to the mages/druids without totally revamping the class, which is obviously not going to happen.

I like the idea Narsrim suggested, limiting the demesne to Area only melding. This would stop unbreakable demesne, but summoning would still have to be looked at. I'm a geomancer right now and I can barely stand it because it's so easy getting kills if I wanted.

As one who fights in a demesne very often, I've got to say, melding, maintaining, and fighting a demesne is the worst aspect of Lusternia. I know it's my fault for choosing and continuing to play a mage, but it's really boring and really just not fun.

I know it's been said countless times... put a short delay on demesne summon (giving them a message that they are about to be summoned).

Give mages the choice to take on a skillset that allows them to become earth/water elementals, I hate demesnes and I'd take anything that could replace them.

I would love to see something other than demesnes. I think the idea of the demesne is very cool, but after so long, you realize that it's just sort of...tedious, and often unfair and extremely irritating. Maintaining them is a pain, breaking them is a pain, and they can turn "group combat" into slaughters.

Also, it's pretty much impossible for two mages to really fight each other without one being able to crush the other. That was something that always bothered me in Achaea, as I tend to have flashbacks of trying to dampen someone's vibes and put up my own, until you ended up not even bothering anymore and using other stuff to kill. Pretty much the same thing with breaking demesnes.

If the divine actually considered rehauling demesnes, it would be cool to keep them, with lots of limitations like Murphy mentioned (maybe more?), and in addition give mages some other skills that aren't directly related to their demesne. Things like the trans skill Kaervas envoyed (Earthform, something similar for aquamancers) would be cool. Things like that would make it so that demesnes weren't the key factor, and mages could potentially fight well without them.

I do like the idea of diminishing effects, and it does make a bit of sense. I don't see how I could make the earth do things the same to 10 people as it can to one person.

AMEN! I picked up the Geomancer class back in the time that Mag had no real Geomancer numbers and had several hundred Ur'Guard. I would kill to get anything other than demesnes, but it would seem kinda strange for a Geomancer to pass on the Geomancy skillset. Not sure how you could get around that.

You could chose between Geomancy and...Geology.



PS: If you became an earth elemental, you would look like this. (I didn't make this)

You could... throw rocks at people.

OH! Even better, throw gems at people. Of course, you'd have to buy the gems from your friendly jeweller

The problem with having an alternate, non-demesne centered specialization is that you'd still feel like you'd have to keep the demesne one, just so you could still use them to defend, even if you didn't want to. I'd rather keep demesnes or get rid of them altogether then be given a choice between the two, as most active mages would be obligated to keep the demesne form anyways.

I know I've said this a lot, but I also hate demesnes... they are great ideas in theory, but in practice they are just awful for fighting with or against. I also dislike most of the limitations that are being proposed to put on them, making them have all the setup and maintenance costs of an area-wide skill, but really starting to take away the range capacity of the mage/druid (protection scrolls I detest, for example).

Personally, I would prefer demesnes were relegated to much weaker, but much more permanent area effects... and the mages/druids given more active abilities in their chosen environment. More like stages of environmental control that take RL days to affect, not RL minutes. You want to grow a forest, its going to take time... but if you get it established you'll be able to activate the maximum amount of hindrance to your enemies. You want to flood a location, again it takes time, and you've got to slowly cut away at the forest or taint that prevents it.

Having a non-demesne specialization would still attract a lot of people... I know I'd choose it over Druidry. Any Druid/Mage that tries to be good at offensive combat has to either 'attack' by melding, or completely ignore his primary skill. That is why we never see mages raiding, but every time there's a raid, mages are the first people to be pushed into helping defend.

I agree Acrune. Having some people able to choose to escape the horror of demesnes, and some having to keep it out of duty, doesn't actually solve any problems. Demesnes would still be as critical as they always were.

It seems this horse will never die until demesnes are actually scrapped or changed into something similar to vibes. I've given my view on the subject many times, so I will not go deeply into anymore. I will just point out that anyone can tell how much I like having demesnes by how often and in what manner I use them. I rarely use them, and when I do my demesne is rarely larger than 10 rooms.

Well, Demesnes are part of the Lusternian design, so I doubt their going to scrap something fundemental.

Maybe a new skill/archetype will be key to breaking demesnes. Or maybe they can reduce the power or something.

Half the problem is how tedious it is to break/take over. Then you get to rely completely on it for combat and summon people who step inside, the idea although nice, has many flaws.

If you scrap the skillset, you need to figure out a way to repay mages who have transed the skill so they can fully trans the new one. This might be difficult for the Admins to do. If you weaken the skillset somewhat, again, you may have to find a way to offer Mages a way to switch the skillset or class without losing lessons. Also not an easy task to do. Personally, I hate demesnes, but would be extremely pissed if entire skillset changed all of a sudden with no option for me to get out without significant loss. This would be far worse than nerfing a single or two skills in the skillset as you are talking about changing everything we know about demesnes. I would prefer instead to be given another option which could prove to be the least hassle for the admins, as well as a fair objective for those who have already taken the skill.

There probably is no good solution, as each plan has its pros and cons.

I don't think you'd have to change skillsets, just make a little event, where mages and druids all learn how to do something else due to their hatred of demesnes, and replace most of the skills in the main skillset