Astrology afflictions for balizar:
Sun does Asphyxiation Damage (Crocodile)
Moon will afflict them with Hallucinate (Dolphin)
Eroee will afflict them with Sensitivity (Dolphin)
Sidiak will afflict them with Amnesia (Lion)
Tarox will afflict them with Recklessness (Burning Censer)
Papaxi will afflict them with Mana Reduction (Glacier)
Aapek will afflict them with Anorexia (Spider)


You people keep making me switch between my alt and main all day.

So these are the...planetary rays. What else does things? What was that mutable/cardinal/something stuff?

I remember when there was a full syzygy, and there were like 3 people running around just OWNING people. Think Tuek may have been one of them. It was crazy. Shiri, grab that log for me.

Those are the planetary rays, yes. Planetary rays always afflict the same thing on a person, because they're determined by nativity.

Cardinal signs are like the cardinal directions. They're on the N/E/S/W points of the zodiac belt. Like a + sign.
Mutable signs are clockwise to the right of the cardinal signs. Like North-northeast for Antlers. Like a X sign.
Fixed signs are once counterclockwise of a cardinal sign. Like North-northwest for Glacier. Think of a >< thing, maybe.

Clockwise, from the top, the signs go:

Volcano (North)
Antlers
Twincrystals
Dolphin (East)
Lion
Crocodile
BurningCenser (South)
Spider
Dragon (I may have those two mixed up, but I'm fairly sure)
Skull (West)
Bumblebee
Glacier

There's also the Sign/Constellation rays that you can use when casting those above signs. If a planet is in there, it afflicts the planetary ray as if it was in that sign. For instance..

If Aapek is in Volcano, and I use Volcano Ray, I afflict with Aeon. It's Aeon because Volcano is a Cardinal sign.
If Aapek is in Burning Censer, it's the same thing as above. Because Burning Censer is also a Cardinal sign.

If there's more than two planets under a sign, the affliction granted is random. However, you can use Stellium for 2p to afflict every ray that's under a sign. That's where the once-in-250-years Szygy comes in, where every planet is under the same sign. (Tuek and Laysus logged this somewhere...)

If a planet is retrograde (rotating backwards) under a sign, it ALWAYS hits when you can the sign ray.

Edit: We can talk about spheres from here, but that's a completely different and just as complicated idea!

Just a note: A full syzygy is when all planets are retrograde in a single sign (an astrologer can deal 6 afflictions + bit of damage for NO power), and happens roughly every 8 RL years.

Every 8.3 years, for 60 minutes.

So we've already seen what might be the only syzygy that will ever happen in Lusternia. Good to know.

Woah, how obvious was that!? I never made the connection. Thanks!

Ooh, someone do mine!

How about we stop posting nativity and astrology afflictions before this next skillset becomes semi useless. As if Guardian's aren't easy enough to combat...

Eight RL years??? Good grief!

*sagenods eagerly*

*burns the thread*

You should -want- people to be good at fighting Astrology. Because then you can get it fixed for combat, if you want. Winning only because people don't have a clue means your skill is pretty damned bad.

Umm why can't people find out themselves how to cure it instead of being lazy and having it fed to them on forums? You don't fight, so why make silly comments like that?

Because it's common sense? People know the other skills, have experience with them, have triggers for them, and still lose. If you're afraid Astrology is going to lose it's edge because people know how to handle it, it needs an upgrade. I don't fight anymore, but I have in the past, and I can comment on the generalities of it still.

That it needs an upgrade is nothing new, as far as I'm aware though it is _not_ supposed to be a viable combat choice so it probably won't ever get a proper one. Why rob us of the little we have as we strive to be Astrologers for RP reasons and at the same time try to be at least semi-useful at combat.

Ah, there it is again, that "this skill shouldn't be useful in combat" mentality, even though 90% of our skills are only useful in some kind of conflict. It's ridiculous. If you have combat skills, they should be viable. If the Gods want to make an RP set, they're free to do that, Dramatics or Influence, for example. Why are Bards, Astrologers, Healers, and who knows what else, all not supposed to be combat viable?

The things about astrologers is that they're only supposed to be viable some of the time. I remember one of the gods saying when it came out that if you want a skillset that is useful 100% of the time astrology is not the skill for you. By its very nature exactly how good it is varies based on what afflictions you have available to you at the moment.

And I want to go on record saying that astrology isn't bad anymore. Constellation helps lots, and the spheres are even better than they were before for team combat now. I still wouldn't take it over hexes if I wanted to kill people but it's definitely usable, especially with lightning fast aeon.

astrology also has ridiculously good utility! like as much as totems.

........

There is -no- utility in astrology. I define utility as certain skills like milestone, hermit, catacombs, starleaper, bolting, via, acquisitio, puella, etc. However astrology does carry nice defensive buffs.