Ancestral curse is 8p - that means no rending, and assumes they will stay in one room. Writhing from vines means 100 or 200 bleeding. That isn't that bad, it's the same as the bleeding from a cudgel. If we are lashing you instead of cudgeling, you can just writhe and suck the 100-200 bleeding. You can writhe faster than we can lash, unless you're big. Yes, Darkseed helps it stack (assuming they don't use ignite), but Darkseed is 8p, so if we use it, we can't use rend.

I'm just not sure I see a good use in non-group situations over other skills, since the only time it'll stack up is if they are messed up enough that sap will saplock them.

Not saying the skill is underpowered, I just wish there was a way to get it to stack without creating sap-lock conditions, in which case there's no reason not to just sap.

Maybe I just need to use it more. I tried it on someone who was runing a lot to see if the movement hindering and bleeding from moving would be enough to hurt her or slow her down, but it didn't seem to help catch her or make her stop running, even when she had three limbs lashed (she had no ignite enchant, and she was falling asleep from exhaustion). Took my teammate and I a while to hold her down and lash/rend her with her falling asleep and a warrior hitting her.

Again, it's possibly just my inexperience with the skill. I need to spar more

We should discuss mindblast a bit. As I said, if the attacker is a lower level than you, then it doesn't matter, but if it's a higher one, then it hurts.

4840h, 4800m, 4844e, 4p sSilrxk<>---/12:42:57.843/
A sudden headache makes you rub your temples for relief.
Psionic activity crackles in the air on the substratus channel of Narsrim.
4840h, 4800m, 4844e, 4p sSilrxk<>---/12:42:58.265/
A sudden headache makes you rub your temples for relief.
Psionic activity crackles in the air on the id channel of Narsrim.
4840h, 4800m, 4844e, 4p sSilrxkp<>-
A blinding pain explodes behind your eyes, which begin to tear up with blood.
Psionic activity crackles in the air on the superstratus channel of Narsrim.
3910h, 3809m, 3954e, 4p sSilrxkp<>---/12:42:58.734/


2 hidden afflictions and 900 health, 1000 mana and 900 ego damage is a bit much.

Ancestral Curse lasts 5 minutes and costs 8p - and hits a target in trees. Thornrend costs 8p, which means you have to regen 6p after using Ancestral Curse. I regen power at 1p/10 seconds, thus you have -4 minutes- (or 24 hits from ancestral curse) where at any given time you can thornrend. That's damn good considering you also get a demesne (and a potential infused mote/rune).

While yes, someone can move out of the room, if you are playing defensive, your target won't be able to effectively attack you (which is often the case when being jumped or holding a given area).

===============================================

As for the writhing (which this may have changed with the writhe changes), but thornlash appeared to have a constant writhe time to it (like impale). Also, as you said: thornlash bleeding is roughly equivalent to cudgel bleeding EXCEPT thornrend makes it have a special chance to instantly kill.

I find that worthwhile.



I consider myself a decent combatant. I was incapable in ANY SHAPE OR FORM of killing Mazeb in a full Aquamancer demesne with telepathy. I destroyed him with telekinesis. Why?

The afflictions are relatively slow and the affliction list is small. You can assume at any given time you will most likely be hit with a pennyroyal or kombu cure or a focus body cure. That's not exactly special. This happens on a 4.0-4.5 second timer. If you cannot heal 2 afflictions in 4.0-4.5 seconds, you have curing issues as both Hexes/Runes far exceeds this. Hexes, for example, can deal out 1 affliction per 1.0 second (assuming they are already drawn). The affliction list is better (anorexia, sleep, etc).

In the end, it comes down to mindblast. While 900 health, 1000 mana, 900 ego sounds like a lot at first, let us keep in mind that say... sipping bromide/sparkleberry is going to cure you ~500 health, ~500 mana, ~1000+ ego. Mindblast is on the super stratus channel, being a 6.0 second attack. Sipping and Sparkleberry are both -way- faster. Telepathy also has no afflictions (except for stupidity, which doesn't exactly work as well I'd hope) to hinder sipping. Thus against anyone who can sip effectively, it is not possible to truly drain anything other than mana with constant mindblasting. Draining mana in no way helps me.

Malicia, for example, just switches health/sparkleberry, bromide/sparkleberry, health/sparkleberry, etc... and she wasn't in mindburst range for over 20 minutes of sparring.

A sip for me is about 500 health/ego and happens every 5 seconds. Mindblast is 1k, 1k, 1k every 6 seconds. Let's ignore sparkles for the moment since I don't know their timer (and I'm out and haven't been any to find anyone selling them ). My max health is about 3,100. My max ego is about 4,800:


Time - : 3000 health, 4800 ego
Time 0 : mindblast, health sip: 2500 health, 3800 ego
Time 5 : bromide sip: 2500 health, 4300 ego
Time 6 : mindblast: 1500 health, 3300 ego
Time 10: health sip: 2000 health, 3300 ego
Time 12: Mindblast: 1000 health, 2300 ego
Time 15: I can either sip health and not die from the upcoming mindblast, or I can sip ego to not die from the upcoming mindburst. Either way, I'm dead 18 seconds into the battle, and there was no way I could stop this with afflictions, since no hindering stops telepathy.

I know these numbers are estimates, but Soll and I tested it - that's exactly what it came out to be, if I remember correctly.

Let's see.
Sipping is on a 4.5 seconds timer, sparkleberry is on a 6 second timer. That's not WAY faster. Plus, you seem to think "just" being able to drain mana isn't good. Let's see, focus mind is 250 mana, focus body is 250 mana. If you are out of mana, you can't cure out of paralysis, which is, by chance, one of the hidden afflictions you can give. Stupidity is very good, as well, seeing that it usually prevents my commands 50% of the time, if not more. Now, let's see. You can die due to reaching 0 health, or due to reaching half ego and dieing to mindblast.
Not to forget that, thanks to the masked afflictions, you first have to diagnose and then cure it up, which takes about 2 seconds away from the offense again. So, about half the time, you will be busy curing up, while being pounded on with said damage. I'll be honest. You probably couldn't have killed me if I wouldn't have barrier and had Mitch using hailstorm. But that would've meant I would've run sooner or later. Now, let's not take me as an example, let's take an average level 80 Master viscanti as example.

Health: 3980
Mana: 4220
Ego: 3500

you could effectively kill him in 18 seconds. Now, if we are going to complain about Ixion killing level 80 guys in 10 seconds, why not complain about high level mindblast?

You -need- sparkleberry.

Just so you can see.


You feel your health, mana and ego replenished.
5673h, 6710m, 5158e, 10p eslrxk<>---/13:37:13.718/
You may eat another sparkleberry.
5673h, 6710m, 5158e, 10p eslrxk<>---/13:37:19.765/

How can you just ignore sparkleberries (I realize you don't have any, but trying to make an argument without them is pointless)? This is the most absurd argument I've heard in some time as sparkleberries truly are the deciding factor.

Also, you fail to take into consideration that a telepath has to regain all 3 channels to discern to check ego on a target. You are also incorrect. You can shieldstun to hinder telepathy. In fact, constant shieldstunning is HIGHLY EFFECTIVE against both telepathy and telekinesis as once the synergy is taken away, the effects are relatively easy cure/heal.

If you can survive 18 seconds without sparkleberries, you should be golden with them.... and if you aren't a few shieldstuns later you will be.

Time - : 3000 health, 4800 ego
Time 0 : mindblast, health sip, spark: 2800 health, 4280 ego
Time 5 : bromide sip: 2800 health, 4780 ego
Time 6 : mindblast, spark: 2100 health, 4260 ego
Time 10: health sip: 2600 health, 4260 ego
Time 12: Mindblast, spark: 1800 health, 3260 ego
Time 15: health sip: 2300 health, 3260 ego
Time 18: Mindblast, spark: 1600 health, 2740 ego
Time 20: health sip: 2100 health, 2740 ego
Time 24: Mindblast, spark: 1400 health, 2220 ego
Time 25: bromide sip: 1400 health, 2720 ego
Time 30: Mindblast, spark, health sip: 1200 health, 2200 ego
Time 35: bromide sip: 1200 health, 2700 ego
Time 36: Mindblast, spark: 500 health, 2180 ego
Time 40: health sip: 1000 health, 2180 ego
Time 42: Mindburst, death

Okay, 42 seconds is considerably longer, but that's EXPENSIVE. I can't afford to spend 50 gold every six seconds of combat And this is assuming stupidity/recklessness never screw with my healing for one second, and that I'm using sparkleberries on any little hint of damage, which I can't keep up outside of the arena. I still don't think mindblast is balanced.

I suspect when the changes I believe are planned for psionics go in, things will be much better.

On lash, I was hoping for Druids to be a bit more powerful in forest, given their complete uselessness outside it. Unfortunately, that doesn't look like it will really be the case. As before, we'll be great at hindering, but lack great kill options... other than sap. Better off than before at least I suppose.

And what about hindering with shieldstun or climbing into trees/simply moving a room away? You can make the argument that a telepath can eventually kill someone with mindburst, but then again, if someone doesn't move 8 seconds after Soulless Tarot, they die too. It is a moot argument.

If you do nothing but sip/sparkle, you will last 42 seconds. How long would you last against Ixion, Daevos, Nico (who can brainbash in under 12 seconds on some people), Amaru, etc. It will likely be far shorter than 42 seconds. Far shorter.

But my (non-stun) hindering stops their offense And I want to know why "Just use a skill that takes four seconds to recover from" is a valid counter argument to mindblast, and not to thornlash

EDIT: And in your case, it prevents thornlash from doing a thing, but in my case, I'm still taking massive damage AND afflictions, just screwing with your timing.

You shouldn't forget that a telepath could use 2 power at the start of a fight to order someone else to give him their shield. And what about warriors who can't use shields? They have no way to hinder your offense?

Shorlen, don't be daft. Daevos and Geb, for example, would assault you for a sliced tendon in a single assault (or close to it). You'd be lucky if you were able to cure that and get away before dying. There would be no webbing. Likewise, if you think webbing Nico or Ixion would keep you alive (and do note, you'd be dead far earlier than 42 seconds of mindblasting), you are just ranting to rant.

Finally, the reason shieldstun cannot be compared to ignite is because of the situation. One hinders to slow an opponent down. Thus shieldstunning a telepath who is gaining a lead over your curing will be a helpful means to stay alive. Being forced to ignite constantly while on the offensive negates your offense as it requires crucial, wasted time.

People shieldstun to hinder. The point is to slow the target down. People ignite themselves to cure. This is -not- slowing the target down (except in the case of thornrend, but it doesn't hinder anything else).

Rejecting someone is on a 4 second equilibrium, it plays havoc with my offense half the time. Nerf love potion!

AB ENVIRONMENT SELFISHNESS.

Syntax: SELFISHNESS
GENEROSITY
With this ability, you may cause yourself to become so selfish that you can't
give away a thing.

Yeah, I mean, you can't force generosity. Oh wait.

It also only hits every 20 seconds, which is more than enough time to whore choleric illusions



While yes, I suppose you could force generosity, I cannot force generosity/give shield -before- you can just use selfishness again. Furthermore if you are off balance/eq, it doesn't matter as you have to have both to give something away.


Watch the personal attacks on other players. -Morgfyre

You really can't ignore Selfishness here. Warriors have grip. I'm confused as to why people are complaining about Narsrim's offence when people die in far, far quicker times against other people.

I thought Selfishness was in Discipline? Why not just rename Environment to "Miscellany" or something?

Druids don't have illusions, try again.