I find it quite funny that people would attack someone who is clearly not quite established in lusternia right from the get go and just wanted to get some outside opinion. I truly don't feel that wanting to change class and race in order to perform better is meta-gaming at all. For my, at least, diamante the character has never viewed races as an integral part of a person. To him the body is nothing more than a vessel, a means to an end. His soul is something entirely different from his race, and every time he has reincarnated it has been to accomplish a means to better serve his task.

For class change, the character diamante has practically always been a wiccan with swords. He has very strong ties to the fae, and I see him becoming a Shadowdancer as more a completion on what his original concept was rather than a change to be OP. (And if you try to argue otherwise, I'm MUCH scarier a warrior than I am as a wiccan, at least for now)

@guy regarding weapon specializations. I've been Bonecrusher, Blademaster, and Pureblade, the former two much longer than the latter. Overall I have come to this conclusion.

Bonecrusher afflictions are -extremely- good at the early levels of wounding in most limbs and areas. However, I have found that blademasters afflictions are extremely good at the high level affliction areas.

Thus to many , many top fighters bonecrusher wounds seem that much better because they heal much better and tend to keep their wound states in such that our stuns and knockdowns are much more common, as apart from head afflictions bonecrusher heavy and critical states are terrible. It is -because- a fighter constantly keeps his legs in the medium range that things such as knockdowns occur so often. To be honest against someone like murphy I have found it much, much more effect to allow my entire body to get well into heavy and critical and just keep my head as low as possible, in order to avoid the constant stun from early afflictions like breaknose, breakchest and knockdown. (knockdown>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>mangle leg, particularly because it knocks prone AND stunns).

As for blademasters their abilities lie in latter afflictions, as well as the hands down best affliction combo in the game. Slit throat and slickness, which can be given for 0 power and takes 3 power to cure. On top of that they have very nice heavy and critical afflictions, tendon which requires regeneration and knocks prone, impale gut which when rended gives decent bleeding, an often unlikely but nasty lock with two sides paralysed if their coltsfoot pipe turns up empty when it's given, stopping them until they can allheale it away, as well as being an instant movement lock underwater. Pinleg, which is quite possibly one of the best afflictions to come about in a long time, which is utterly amazing in group combat and one vs one.

So if a bonecrusher can mess you up quick, they are very good, but in a fight against people of equal level, skill, and weapons, the blademaster will win if he doesn't encounter too much trouble in the early stages

Not against Nihilists! *cackle*

So changing from an good race for your class/city/commune into one that is not nearly as good (in fact might be regarded as BAD) would be....role-playing? Or wait, no, since changing race isn't role-playing, it must be...metagaming? But wait again, metagaming means you are attempting to play the game by maximizing yourself as much as possible. So it must be....MINIgaming! Aha! Like it or not, there ARE some instances in which changing race IS within the bounds of Roleplay. Yes, most of the time it isn't, obviously. Just because you aren't capable of coming up with an acceptable, fully fleshed-out reincarnation roleplay dosen't mean someone else can't.

My advice to you, Narak - just pick whichever race and spec you want. If you want it for RP reasons, fine, if not, fine. You're still young and will have plenty of time to flesh out your character. Don't worry about all the little things.

Agreed.
As, Shiri said, that is actually exactly what I am saying.



You seem confused.

Changing your race for any outside reason is meta-gaming. And is not wrong (at least not in Lusternia).

Creating a reason for your character to change race is good - but does not make your decision to change race a role-playing decision.

The defination of metagaming is using ooc information that your charater could not know to benefit your charater. You are not metagaming in anway by deciding to change race. You know all of this information ic already, you are not using any ooc information that your charater does not know, you know tauraians are strong you know mugwumps are weak in game, It is not meta gaming.

An example of meta gaming is finding out on say a serenwilde that they plan to raid glom at 9pm then going to your glom charater and getting the commune prepared for the raid, you are using information that your charater could not know to help him. When changing race you are or do not need to use any ooc information that your charater does not already know ic, it isnt metagaming.

I didn't say anything about changing races because, true, it's quite obvious ICly that Mugwumps and Merians are smarter and therefore better mages than Taurians.

However, it is metagaming to come to the forums and ask, "Hey, my skill is underpowered (It likely isn't) can someone tell me what's most powerful right now?" Because you're using OOC knowledge to empower your character, with an OOC motivation - Just pick whichever is most interesting to you and switch. Asking what's more overpowered is poor form, and it's likely that it'll change with the next envoys (And people who change skills just after envoys because whatever tactic they were whoring is now invalid have no skill whatsoever). Not to mention that what people perceive as overpowered isn't, probably, overpowered; there simply are more skilled fighters with that skillset, and skilled fighters switch to that skillset, increasing even more the illusion of one skillset being better.

The guy is new and he is asking for some advice. Why do you have to keep on and on about metagaming like a rp nazi? So what if he asks which skillset is better? There is a whole section devoted to coding and system building, so are they metagaming because they want a script to summarise power logs? How about using maps from the official website? Everyone is trying to enjoy the game and no one is telling you how to do it, why are you blasting off at others who take a different approach than you? If you don't like a thread, just don't read or post! If you think someone is out of line in game, use ISSUE.

As for combat and overpowered skillsets, there is a whole section devoted to that too. But then, according to you, you will be metagaming too if you start a thread there.

Rather that reply specifically, I'll just note that attempts to justify any and all player actions as role-playing merely serve to confuse the idea of what role-playing is.

This confusion is ultimately detrimental to role-playing in the game.

Lusternia involves a high proportion of meta-game content as well as the role-playing aspect. Aliases, scripts... there's really no need to try and hide, or be defensive about this. Lusternia is not foremost a role-playing game. Just looking at the character skillsets will show you that.

It is however a game with heavy role-playing content.
I do not see that improving awareness of this distinction is a bad thing.