You'll never in a million years guess who my other characters are but I've been playing Achaea and Aetolia for a bit and I'm trying to translate that experience into this and would like advice as to what I would enjoy most and help me understand what's going on.

My first thought was forestal, part of it being a good tradeskill coupled with my inability to get credits outside of realms and my aptitude and enjoyment of exploring. My second thought was that I would like to RP something darkish, so I jump towards Blacktalon or Shadowdancers. I enjoy fast races (on whichever balance type is applicable) and fighting that's more flexible in what I can do, as opposed to bashing a stormhammer macro.

So I'm wondering about alignment and conflict, etc. , I'm assuming that Celest and Serenwilde are 'good' and Glomdoring and Magnagora are 'evil'? with Serenwilde and Magnagora being forest, and the others urban?

I was wondering how druids compare to wiccans as well, and how hexes, runes, dreamweaving, and hunting compare, and what types of stats they flourish on?

A list of recommended races for any applicable classy thingies would be very much appreciated. Thankees so much!

-The Milkman

The good/evil thing is a huge stereotype and misconception. There is no "good" force and no "evil" force. Serenwilde and New Celest are in open war right now actually, with Serenwilde and Magnagora working together. Serenwilde and the Glomdoring are the two forests while New Celest and Magnagora are the cities.

Most alignment is personal, with a little help from your organization. There are lots of bad Seren and Celestians while also lots of decent Magnagorans and Glomdorans. Though everyone will say they are right .

I'm afraid I can't help with the rest, really . I've been a Trill Serenguard since I started playing and haven't branched out too much.

Every organisation considers themselves good. Glomdoring is darker than the rest and Magnagora has quests which are obviously evil (enslaving souls), but every organisation is very selfish and ready to stab other's backs, and alliances are very fluid.

Presuming you're choosing Glomdoring - very small population, I've heard they're keen on RP. The main difference between Blacktalon and Shadowdancers is as follows:

-Blacktalon: they can put up a demesne - that is, they cover some rooms in an area with their wyrden forest and then set up effects that hurt every enemy inside the demesne. Sounds powerful, but won't kill anyone but newbies. Still good. They also kill with Thornrend, an ability that makes vines grasp the enemy's limbs and finally shred them apart. As for secondary skills - Crow has some nice effects, but I never checked the skill myself. For third, you have the option to choose between Runes (rather weak, only runists are used to set runes into totems), Dreamweaving (mostly used to spy and to be annoying) and Ecology (some shamanistic fetish thingies and having a familiar). All tertiary choices are rather weak.
Being a druid doesn't require much credits, but their combat is rather monotonous. At least it used to be before Thornrend, don't know about it now. But still more complicated than bashing a stormhammer macro.

-Shadowdancers: they summon Fae - some of them aid you with small effects, others attack the enemy. Like the demesne, the Fae themselves won't kill anyone but newbies. Secondary skill is Night - mostly defenses (useful ones) or skills that you can only make in covens (groups of night followers), and a very good transcendent skill. As for tertiary - you can choose between Healing (not as powerful as in other IRE games), Astrology (buff or de-buff people, depending on the signs astrological bodies are in) and Hexes (afflictions, also masked). If you want to go for PvP in this guild, you'll simply HAVE to choose Hexes, because Healing has next to no offense and Astrology is very unreliable. If you don't mind about PvP - take what you want.
Being a Shadowdancer requires slightly more credits than a druid, but their PvP (if you choose Hexes) has more options.


Races:

Basically, there are strict restrictions on race only if you want to become a warrior. Most races can do good as wiccans or druids, but some do better than others:

-Humans. Very good experience rate and become powerful on higher levels, with their evolution.
-Faelings. Get a specialisation when in Glomdoring, making their stats more useful (not that their base ones are bad for these guilds). They have fast balance, but you won't use it much.
-Mugwumps. Very fast equilibrium, but are frail.
-Furrikin. Rather fast, and magic resistant. Can also roll, which works like tumble.
-Basically, everything without an equilibrium penalty.

Ouch. Let me beg to differ with much of that, since I think that's a nice summary of the more popular misconceptions about my class.

Think of the demesne like you would think of mages' vibes in the other IRE games: no, on their own, they won't kill anyone, but they're a wonderful set of passive effects. Blacktalon have about four different feasible ways of killing someone right now (lock in sap - which is like aeon, but harder to cure; instakill with thornrend; kill with bleeding; mana instakill), so we're fairly flexible. Crow has gotten to be a lovely skillset.

The tertiary choices are not weak in the context of your other skills and the ways in which you're trying to kill. Xavius, the previous BT Champion, dropped Ecology for Runes, so Runes aren't just used to set totems. They complement a demesne and work towards a saplock way better than Ecology does. Dreamweaving's my personal tertiary choice, and not because I can use it to spy and to be annoying. Dreamweaving provides you with: (1) passive blackout of good duration, (2) active blackout of even better duration, (3) sleep attacks, which are incurable (4) afflictions that help seal a saplock, (5) an ability that keeps you from being put to sleep with poisons/sleep attacks, (6) an ability similar to blackwind/astralform, which lets you walk around almost undetectable and almost unattackable (great for exploring places you shouldn't be, spying and killing clueless people.)

Doesn't take a lot of credits to get into BT combat. Fabled Druidry and a little in your tertiary skill will give you one kill tactic, Mythical Druidry will give you one or two more, which is plenty to play around with. Faeling's a great racial choice, especially if you're a Runist, since they work on balance. Humans are great at higher levels (around 80 or so), when they've evolved their stats enough, but it'll take work getting there. Mugwumps are a little frail, and we get very little by way of damage buffs. Furrikin are a good choice, make annoying-as-hell Dreamweavers, and can tumble.

If you do go Blacktalon, ask Nirrti about combat training. And yes, we're "very keen on RP." Glomdoring's a pretty immersive experience in that sense.

Good. Druids are the only archetype that I NEVER scrutinised in greater extent, so it's better to have a first-hand relation on how they do in PvP.

I will try to make a small summery out of this, as I had alts everywhere for some amount of time. First, Lusternia in general is a world that survived a great war between the divine and Soulless gods. This is a -very- general explanation and reading the histories would do much more justice... but just bear it in mind.

Now then, when the basin was already populated, there were four cities and three forests. Cosmic hope was an operation that was supposed to tap energy from the astral plane and use it in order to restore the basin when in truth it unleashed Kethuru, which is the mightiest of the soulless gods. The soulless gods are also extremly powerful and chaotic, just for refference sake.

Magnagora and Gloriana- now known as Glomdoring, were struck by a "tainted cloud" that was unleashed upon them both and so they were Tainted. The taint caused various mutations, making the glomdoring a deal darker and "spookier". The taint also affected Shallamer and the Earth plane, thus were created the Demon Lords followed by the Nihilists and the Geomancers' plane of power was tainted- a fact which affected their powers.

That's a very short explanation.

Lusternia works by archtypes, each archtype has at least two variations, some even more:

warrior- your classic fighter, capable of using weapons to great effect. Each commune or city has their own unique teachings and so, each fighter gains abilities which are related to the general essence of their affliations. For instance, in Magnagora, warriors can learn necromancy while in celest, they will learn sacramaments.

Wicca- Wiccans can be found in the communes, they summon fae to help them in battle and gain abilities based upon whom they follow, Mother Night or Moon.

Guardians- Guardians dwell in the cities and are the protactors of the cosmic planes which are essentialy the homes of either the Demon Lords- Nil, Or the Supernals- Celestia. The Guardians are priests, capable of summoning either an angel or demon to aide them in battle and wield unholy/holy power.

Mages/Druids- Mages and Druids are capable of "melding" areas as their demesnes and activate their powers therein. For example, an Aquamancer will call upon ice to freeze its enemies and jellyfish to sting them, a Geomancer will cause rockslides. Druids are basicly the same, only that their power is "of nature". calling unto the powers of nature to strike at its foes.
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cities/communes:

Serenwilde- home to the Moondancers (wicca), Serenguard (warriors) and Hartstone (druid). Serenwilde remains the single untainted forest in the basin and so they protect it with their lives.

Celest- the city of "light", they are your typical righteous empire. Home to the Aquamancers (mage), Paladins ( warrior) and Celestines (guardian). Most of them oppose the taint and seek to actively "cleanse" it but others merely seek to live out their lives and help others.

Magnagora- The tainted city, home to the Geomancers (mage), Ur'guard (warrior) and Nihilists (guardian). Many of them would argue that they wish to spread the taint while others act in defense- they would argue that they consider the taint a powerful tool and they wish to make use of it, and not force others to. However , both celest and magnagora are quite active when it comes to battling one another.

Glomdoring- Glomdoring do not believe that they are tainted, and those who do are often quieted down by Lady Viravain, who is the Goddess who created the forest initialy and then "cleansed" it, or at least, so she believes. Glomdoring is the home of the Ebonguard(warrior), Shadowdancers(wicca) and Blacktalon(druid). Lately, the forest became Wyrden, and so they believe it is a natural evolution that was brought by Lady Viravain. They consider the Glomdoring is the apathome of perfection and seek to spread it throughout the basin.

The explanations I gave are horribly simplified and by no means detail everything. As people already said, an orginization may hold any multitude of opinions and ideas. For instance, Glomdoring and Celest are now allied when in the past, Celest considered them tainted.

things change and evolve constantly and there's no "right" opinion.

Each archtype has a basic set of skills and, when you choose a class (by choosing a guild), you will be able to choose a third skill out of their available selection and your basic skills would progress in the manner which fits set guild. For instance, a Celestine will have his Cosmic skill branch out to Celestialism while Nihilists will have theirs branch to Nihilism.

hope this helps, in some way.
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added after:
hrm... took too long to answer eh?

I really think that all classes can be powerful... you just need to know your tactics.

Consider it this way, Druids are quite demesne reliant. which means that they will need to have a melded demesne activated in order to be in their prime. But when they do, it can hit multiple people and have great effect.

Wiccas are mobile, as their fae move around with them. Some would consider this battle style more varstile.

My best suggestion to you is get down and read about it. Worse case, you can create a new character... or switch as a novice, thus not losing any lessons.

As a note: trade agreements do NOT equal an alliance.

By that reasoning, we're also allied with Magnagora, since we haven't banned trade with them-- in fact, we didn't even have to craft a treaty in order to even allow trade in the first place!

Hmph. Double posts annoy me.

Yes, a very tenuous alliance with us in Magnagora, where you kill us if we step into Glomdoring, and we kill you if you step into Shallach or Spectre Isle (assuming someone can be bothered to notice).

Such an amazing alliance, is it not?

Though I don't think the killing comes into play on either side until after the person there is asked to leave and refuses (excepting a few Magnagorans who enjoy killing overly much, and one Ebonguard who I think has been disciplined to the point of actually playing his main instead of using an alt to try and create tension between the Glomdoring and other orgs).

http://lusternia.ire-community.com/index.php?showtopic=7611

There's everything you need to ever know. Read and learn it well.

You'll probably want to create a Magnagoran or Serenwilder between the ages of 16-20 - NO OLDER THAN 20!

I hate asking so many newb questions, pardon, but I'd like to know:

Shadowdancers: Do they have a damage attack? Balance/EQ? Str/Int?
Hexes: Balance/EQ?
Runes: Balance/EQ?
Dreamweaving: Balance/EQ?

And do any of these have attacks reliant on stats?

Thanks again.

Shadowdancers have multiple damage attacks. Nature talisman as a newbie, Athame in Wicca, and then Nightkiss when trans Night. All of these use equilibrium, and rely on intelligence.

Hexes are magical / mental based, and are EQ.
Runes are physically thrown, and are balance.
Dreamweaving is mental, and is EQ.

(Note that runes and dreamweaving are both Blacktalon skills, not Shadowdancer skills)

1: They use Nature Curse which will be used for you until you get Nightkiss (the first form is Talisman which with the mastery of Nature and picking Wicca you get an Athame, if you go Druid youll get a Sickle until you learn Cudgel which is in Druidry.) It uses EQ and relies on Int.
2: I believe it uses EQ but I havent tested in awhile.
3: Im not sure, never liked or used Runes for more than a minute.
4: Pretty sure its EQ but someone who uses it often would know best.

Talisman/Athame/Sickle all rely on your Int and its damage can depend on how much magic resistance the one youre attacking has but that doesnt effect denizens Im pretty sure, Cudgel, I think, does not and Im not sure about Nightkiss/Moonburt.

edit: And theres no such thing as a Newb question, even the best have to test and learn about their skills! So continue asking away.

The only thing with Hexes is that you have to draw them before you can throw them at people. Once you get better you can throw two at once, plus the afflictions themselves are better the closer you are to Trans.

Oops, forgot to ask. What bout thornrend?

Thornrend used to be much more powerful once it was first instituted, but now it is significantly weaker. Druids can cast thorns on various limbs, causing massive bleeding if they try to writhe.

To begin, tradeskills in Lusternia are completely different from what they are in Achaea/Aetolia. You have three guildskills from your class, and none of these are tradeskills like they were in Achaea/Aetolia (Concoctions/Forging/Poisons/Runelore/Enchantment/etc). In addition to your three guildskills, you get to choose a trade. The restrictions on trades are as follows: Only druids and wiccans can be alchemists (the potion making bits of Concoctions). Only magi and guardians can be enchanters (like a weird combination of tattoos and achaean/aetolian enchantment). Both are necessary (though alchemy more so). Only warriors can be forgers. Only Low Magic users can be poisonists and herbalists (the herb picking part of concoctions) - Low Magic users are druids, wiccans, and warriors get to choose between low and high magic (two common skillsets with many of the same skills, but slight differences between them). Anyone can choose to be a bookbinder, jeweler, tailor, cook, or artisan.

So, not only is Concoctions split in half to make it less absurdly powerful, about half of the game has access to the skills, and you can be a city warrior and still be an herbalist. As there are no enforced rules on harvesting like there were in Achaea last time I was there, herbalists spend quite a lot of time replanting. It isn't the ridiculous money factory it was in Achaea when I last played (I quit when autoclass was introduced).


To answer your questions about balances:

Wiccans use equilibrium for everything. Mugwumps make really good Wiccans.

Druids use equilibrium for nearly everything. Runes use balance though. A few Stag skills use balance (like Bellow, which is a room stun). I'm not sure about Crow, but some of their skills sound like they might. Still, equilibrium is what you use for your main attacks.

Strength and Dex only matter for warriors really.

Oh, and note that speed bonuses/penalties mean less here than they do in other games. A level 3 eq bonus here is the same bonus as a level 2 eq bonus in Achaea.

Runes are great for Blacktalon, terrible for Hartstone. Runes is considered a very weak skillset none-the-less. Unlike runelore in Achaea, runes here are about throwing them at someone to afflict them. They are ranged, but unmasked. They can be added to a demesne room in a very vibe-like fashion (as can Dreamweaving motes) such that they strike all enemies of yours who are in the room every 10 seconds. Passive AoE stupidity = awesome for a blacktalon.

Thornrend is a new druid skill of uncertain strength, since it's still new. Thornlash lashes one of their unlashed limbs, which they have to writhe out of. If they writhe, they take 150 bleeding damage. Lashed limbs do not stop movement or actions, though lashed legs slow movement and lashed arms slow arm balance. If you move or are moved while limbs are lashed, you take 50-200 bleeding based on the method of movement and how many limbs are lashed. Thornrend is an instakill that costs 8 Power and requires your foe to have all four limbs lashed. It's very hard though to stack four lashes, since very few things synergize well with it.

As someone who fought extensively as a Moondancer (wiccan) and a Hartstone (druid), they definitely play differently in PvP. Druids are all about timing, carefully stacking afflictions so you can sap-lock them, or so that they are messed up enough to be unable to writhe from thornlashes fast enough or escape before you rend them. Moondancers are all about draining your mana enough for a toadcurse. Moondancers do this by using aeon and sleep in combination, or aeon and anorexia in combination, and draining your mana with an active skill. Moondancers have active mana drain and active aeon. Shadowdancers do it by messing you up enough that Succumb, a mana draining affliction, sticks. Shadowdancers do not have aeon, but they do have Choke, which is the retard vibe skill from Achaea. Moondancer specific ents are more defensive, whereas Shadowdancer ents are more offensive.

In terms of bashing, Wiccans get a 20% damage reduction skill at trans moon/night. This is quite uber. They also have passive mana regen, an ent that calms non-aggressive denizens you attacked to make them stop attacking you, and the Moondancers get a passive health regen ent. The endgame bashing skill for Wiccans is learned at trans moon/night, though the other good bashing skills they get are in Wicca. Druids get their endgame bashing skill (Cudgel) earlier than any other class, at Fabled 50% Druidry (I *think*, things were moved around when Thornlash was added). Stag has some nice other bashing skills, like +1 eq bonus, a 5 Power skill that passively heals you and your allies and cures afflictions, and a skill that gives them 50 uses of a +50% sip bonus for 8 Power. Crow has Darkrebirth, which gives them no experience loss on death, which is just absurd (nerf transmigration effects! ). I'm not sure what else Crow has for bashing assistance.

Crow cloak provides some poison resistance, and I'm fairly sure Crowform provides some sort of resistance as well as some buffs. Also, they have a facepaint to instantly protect them from entanglement effects and I think this works on denizens but I haven't tested it recently.

DarkRebirth is a very good skill to give no experience loss on death, keep in mind though in order to use it they have to bash for corpses to store in their nest. This means they still have to bash in order to keep it up but they do have the added effect of being able to normally bash to level up and protect the experience they gained by using the corpses.