I think you'd have more fun as a BT -except- your prime org conflict area, when you're on the offensive, keeps you from using demesne. And we've already established that druids outside their demesne is a no go.

If you can deal with that, perhaps focus more on conflict elsewhere, you'll start to think of demesne as a central and primary part of your offense rather than a sideline you'd rather not deal with. It's a matter of mindset, and I think (judging from what I can glean of your personality) you could make that leap rather easily. And at that point, you'd have a lot more fun.

Since I don't really see it mentioned here anywhere, and you're still considering race-- Glom has a "We really don't like Kepherans" mindset. Kepherans are powerblocked and can't earn favours until they do some stuff, like demonstrate they're good Glomdoring citizens (not going around making friction everywhere, like some of our Kepherans did once upon a time), having to hunt the Queens in the Undervault (probably not a problem for you, you're able to do that now, but I'm not sure about the roleplay issue), and even then aren't allowed to join non-Glomdoring hives. Somewhat more interesting than just a blanket ban, but it is some work if you want to keep the race, and there are some people who really, really dislike Kepherans (their race killed Crow, after all).

That's less about the combat aspect and more about the roleplaying aspect of the race, and it's the only restricted race in Glomdoring in that sense-- some of the others, people have their own personal tastes about (just like anywhere), but only Kepherans really have an organizational bias.

Don't join the Shadowdancers, they're a worthless class that can't kill anyone competent.

Man, so much wasted trolling opportunity in that post...you made it too obvious, dude.

I'm convinced that Celina is actually me in a parallel universe (where I'm a girl) that's an hour ahead of mine.

I'm completely serious.

Actually, staying on topic, I'll say that Shadowdancers are almost as 'demesne oriented' as Blacktalon, if you're fighting solo. Also, Nigh is a fairly boring skillset (no offense, but compared to Crow, it's bland). Shadowdancers are capable of killing things outside of Choke, but you'll probably not be able to take down any big targets without it.

Also, Choking a room takes 2 moves (releasing then actually choking), and this takes 3 power per room. (4 power, if you count the shadow gathering process, and 6 power if you don't have Nightkiss). People will avoid Choke like the PLAGUE, and that you might have to Choke 2 or 3 rooms before you corner someone (if you're on the offensive, if you're defending, you'll probably not use Choke too much since Blacktalon will just meld). This alone makes it difficult to catch runners, you'll need web enchantments and such to try and catch people.

Assuming you actually get someone in Choke, you have to deal with their passive offenses, if any. That means that against Guardians, Bards and Wiccans, you'll be manually curing. You might also occasionally have to deal with a demesne (though inside an enemy demesne, you really shouldn't be Choking). Monk katas also work through Choke, so, as you can imagine, Choke against monks is dangerous. The best example I can think of: if you aren't prepared to deal with being colourbursted while stuck in your own perma-aeon... don't bother even attacking a bard.

Curing in Choke will limit your offense, and a lot of the time, people can simply tumble out if you don't get them locked up quickly enough. Conversely, warriors (particularly) will be ridiculously weak inside Choke. You can basically laugh until Succumb drains enough mana, then Toadcurse. Hilariously, Toads need to be stomped on a few times before you actually kill them, so prepare to be in a situation where you've failed to kill someone, because they've hopped off somewhere, and you can't even find them. Nightkiss is more reliable, but if you're trying to damage kill a Warrior of decent skill, expect the possibility that they'll escape.

Short Version:
Shadowdancers and Choke is not a be-all and end-all.
Shadowdancers only look ZOMGawesome because the people who play them have a lot of practice doing it, and you can't see that they're burning a lot of power, and doing more 'melding' than a mage does. Remember, Choke is a two-way thing. If you expect you'll be able to win everything with Choke, you will get owned.
Aeon is better than Choke, and Moondancers who disagree can BAWWWW all they like.

Disclaimer: I've not been a Shadowdancer for a while. I'm not sure if all of the above still applies.

Still, to go back to something someone else all ready said I think, if you're a shadowdancer you'll be very experienced with fighting in choke, whereas many people you fight will have no idea what to do about it. I know my system for one is pretty bad at dealing with choke, mostly because I always forget to turn it back on after I leave the choked room. But, the point is, if you design a strategy around the choke (like having a bunch of paralysis hexes up so anyone who walks in is automatically one attack behind), then you can do some pretty easy kills.

I would recommend BT, though, just because I like them.

Uh huh. I can maybe see that for about half the time on 1v1, but definitely a hell no on group combat.

You also have to look at how they kill, MD's have to stick affs for a sleeplock, metawake off, aeon, then repeatedly start lashing before they can toad. SD's have to stick affs sleep lock, metawake off, drop choke, succumb then keep afflicting until they can toad. I'd like to think it's easier doing the latter than the former mostly due to the fact that SD's mana draining capabilities are completely passive. Just my opinion.

I stopped reading here, because you clearly have no idea what you're talking about.

choke entirely dominates aeon. People have said the advantage is that you're not slowed and they are. So what? You can time your actions to hit right as you regain equilibrium. If you're attacking as you regain equilibrium are you really being slowed? Yes you're curing is slowed, so you just need to be careful on what passives the opponent has, but otherwise you have complete inital advantage.

Why can't you time actions with aeon, too?

Oh... you can. Just most people don't actually try to fight back under aeon, they sit there and wait until it's cured.

No, most people are trying to cure aeon because it's curable. They spend about 2 to 3 seconds curing aeon because you can cure it. Choke is uncurable and people spend 5-10 seconds trying to make one move because they're getting afflicted by a "slowed" offense.

Anyways I'm not even entirely sure what you're trying to argue rather than if you're bored and trying to disect what I said. I'd hate to make the assumption that you actually think aeon is better than choke since you're an envoy and all, but you are only mortal.

More than that, if you set aeon up right. If you just throw aeon, or just drop choke, of course it's not going to do a whole lot (Edit: In non-super-mob situations). But yes, I think Aeon would be far more beneficial to a Shadowdancer than Choke is, with Succumb. At least with Choke they have to work to deal with it.

Stop bitching at each other, they both have their advantages and disadvantages and neither is superior to the other.

Yeah, same. Wtf?

And warriors being weak in choke is debatable.. If they come in and insta pinleg for instance suddenly they have a bit more of an edge, used with venoms it can be nasty. But they have to keep moving forward because if you can get back on your feet (no pun intended) they might have more trouble.

Sojiro can pinleg and kill ya in choke I bet

Blacktalon Mugwump dreamweaver. It looks like alot of fun. Fast motes and druidry. I'm getting excited.

It's also up there as one of the strongest classes in the game. Being OP, it's Glom's thing.

Hartstone Mugwump Titan Dreamweaver. The titan part is the perk for going Hartstone, courtesy of Krellan.

It's also really really really squishy.

Edit for context: Even as a titan.