I think giving aslaran cutting damage resistance is too much.

If your talking about having them DO more cutting damage, that just makes no sense to me.

I'm kind of interested hearing about why demis were decided to need this big of a downgrade, though. Also, how about them Ascendants?

Edit: For aslaran, how about extra movement bonus? That seems pretty minor and isn't really related to PK, also makes sense.

Let's compare loboshigaru, a fairly balanced race that you see quite a lot of, to current kephera males.

Loboshigaru
STATISTICS:
Strength : 14 Dexterity : 15 Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 10 Charisma : 11 Size : 13

ADVANTAGES:
o Have racial language, Loboshigaru.
o Have level 3 health regeneration.
o Have level 1 resistance to fire.
o Have level 1 resistance to cold.
o Have level 1 resistance to poison damage.

DISADVANTAGES:
o Have a level 2 susceptiblity to magic.

Male kephera.
KEPHERA STATISTICS (MALE):
Strength : 11 Dexterity : 16 Constitution: 13
Intelligence: 10 Charisma : 11 Size : 10

ADVANTAGES:
o Resistance to cutting damage, level 3.
o Resistance to blunt damage, level 3.
o Resistance to psychic damage, level 2.
o MINDSENSE: ability to sense others in local area (level 50).
o Hive Mind: This special ability allows female of level 50
and above to declare themselves a Queen and form hives. Any
non-queen kephera (male or female) may be part of a kephera
queen hive. When bonded with a Hive Queen (female kephera
level 50), everyone in the hive gets extra health and mana
and ego (extra 50 health/mana/ego per kephera bonded in a
hive when in the same area as the queen). If the queen dies,
the hive is broken. All members must stay within the local
area.

DISADVANTAGES:
o Cannot wear armour.

Stat-wise, loboshigaru currently have 3 more strength, 3 more constitution and 1 less dexterity. Intelligence, charisma are same and size isn't a huge deal. Loboshigaru get level 3 health regen, and level 1 resistances to fire, cold and poison. They also get a level 2 magic weakness, which from what I've heard from many loboshigaru, is quite significant.

What do kephera males have? Sure, they have less strength, but dexterity is more important for monks, which they have one more of. They do have a bit less constitution, but they also get level 3 resistances to blunt and cutting. I'll ignore mindsense and hives for now. As for their disadvantage, what does it really achieve? Make sure no one plays a kephera warrior. Ie, absolutely nothing.

Now, with the changes, they will have 2 less strength, constitution and 2 more dexterity. In addition to that, they're getting level 2 poison (which admittedly is not really much, but since it is felt that viscanti poison resistance is a good upgrade, this must be good too). I understand the need for maybe another strength and dexterity, but why are kephera allowed to be as tanky as you are making them while they, at the same time can deal at least the damage loboshigaru can?

As for female kephera, the only reason you don't really see many of them is because of mugwumps. Now that you're nerfing them to subpar level, you will probably end up getting more kephera females now that mugwumps are as OP as they used to be.

Honestly Soji I think the Ascendants should get hit more, at least VA's, since they are more of who won a popularity contest. Demigod/Titan and True Ascendancy is all a goal worked hard for.

That's what I meant.

I'll explain, sorta. They're lion-ish. Lions cut things, for lack of a better word. So they could maybe have an instinctual grasp of how to cut an opponent better. If that doesn't work for making sense, then they've been fighting the Krokani for who knows how long, and given that Krokani have a weakness to cutting, they might have learned over time to make better use of cutting weapons against them.

As for mechanical sense, well, a boost there would let them keep some of the lost offense without it being related to being fast, which was the problem. In addition, if part of it was from overly fast, stunning bone crushers, well, the little extra damage both has nothing to do with speed, and wouldn't help bone crushers at all. So it sort of fits that way too.

I like the idea of giving them (and maybe mugwumps) some sort of non-speed help to their offense, as it keeps the feel of both races as fragile, but offensive based races, instead of pushing them to a sort of middle area.

Popularity contest or not, you can't really say that Malicia, Nejii and Xenthos didn't work hard to get there. That's what made them popular in the first place.

Demigods, as it stands, are currently getting the equivalent of ~15500 credits worth of stat and regen bonuses (using Achaean stat artifact prices as a guide). After the changes, they will still be getting the equivalent of 5900 credits worth of stat and regen bonuses. That is still a very substantial bonus.

The +3 stats/+3 regen was just too much, and completely overrode the penalties that are traditionally associated with races that have high speed/damage. They will still have a very significant leg up, but not quite so soul crushing as before.

RE: Ascendants, consider that they have access to a unique skillset and substantial bonuses in Domoth capturing/controlling that set them above and beyond Demigods. They also do not have to be as essence-conscious as Demigods, given their inability to lose that status due to dying or spending all their essence.

I tend to agree that if you can convince an entire org into pouring 1000000 power into you, you must be doing something right.

I'd even say that characters who reach such popularity due to RP, helping their org, and such contribute more to Lusternia than someone who spends 10+ hours each day bashing quiestly to 100.

The arguments about whether Ascendants/Demis getting to that point is called work or not shouldn't even be in the equation.

Ninjaed by Morg: So Ascendants for the purposes of the whole racial rebalance thing are in the same boat as Demis?

Hm. I thought that was to help counter the 15-minutes reforming time which gives Demigods a huge advantage in that respect (100k essence versus 500k).

Could lucidians please be looked at to receive a little buff in intelligence? +1 int will put them on par with the base int of most other caster races that spec at least. They're not a popular race beyond RP. Their stats aren't all that great, except they get to have constitution. All their other stats are pretty crap. Low strength, dex, charisma. I don't think a small boost to intelligence would hurt.

I would agree that Lucidians could use a buff, too.

Also, considering the balance scaling, that's going to effect harvesters without gloves a bit. Something to consider.

They got elected Ali, Neji worked to Demigod and went through the whole bash their ass off for the benifit thing. Malicia never even made Titan, nor Xenthos.

This is not to say they didn't do things for their respected orgs. They did do wonderful things for their orgs. I just think demi's and TA's did, so to speak, a little bit more in the actual tedious grind to get to where they did. TAs possibly a little less but they excelled in their respected seal competition and managed to win the greater competition (which well could be seen as popularity as well)



Yes Morgfyre it is a substantial bonus. It can also be seen as a ~9,600 loss too. Which is more than a 50% reduction. So I guess I can understand why they demi's might be a little upset at the solution. If they were to take a 20%-40% reduction I think they would not be as upset. Personally, I think the removal of thunderclap during another demi/titan nerf was more than enough.

The demi/titan things do not effect me in anyway, I just have listened to alot of them talk about the reductions and they are hard reductions for working to level 100. Yes, the glass can be seen half full still, but it is going to be harder for them to see it that way when it was full last week, and more than half has been dumped out (so to speak)

I'm probably reiterating someone else's argument but why not make the point again.

Please examine guardian classes with the new speed changes to Mugwumps/faelings

Two kill attacks available to Celestines/Nihilists are amissio/absolve and
Soulless Tarot.

Both depend on causing afflictions faster than the opponent can cure them
in a burst (with quickening), then causing a few soulrubs/amissios while
the opponent recovers. Then the cycle repeats.

With the speed changes to mugwumps and faelings with this guardian
strategy still be viable?

Will the speed changes make inquisition or judgment kills any less
viable because the rate of afflictions is reduced?

Inquisition is mostly passive afflictions, imo. Heretic, Infidel are both hitting passively, the angel too.

And what about the Nihilists?

Obviously, no one cares about Nihilists

Note the part I quoted. Do Nihilists have judgement/inquisition now?

Inquisition plz

No comment on the demigod changes. They hurt, but I think that's mostly since we're so used to having them as they are.

Upgrading Kephera, however, just seems silly.

You say that you were worried because female Kephera didn't seem that popular for a caster race? As has been said by many, this is because equilibrium bonus has classically made such a huge difference that the majority of casters are races that have such bonuses.

When so many people decide they don't want to be mugwumps anymore, and if speed becomes less important, I think you'll find more people wanting to go for something tankier. Female Kephera will be just that.

The same with monks - they've become all about speed, so races with balance bonuses are getting consideration above them more often than not.

To be honest, I think they might just not be popular because people aren't into being bugs. Most of the people I know who play as kephera are just doing it for the resists and not the RP as is. I've only seen one of two Kephera players try to really get into their UV background and live up to it (or in Glom's case, get really up against it). But hey, maybe I just don't know the right people. That might be an interesting poll to set up!

Giving Kephera more stats after finally giving them a weakness just doesn't seem fitting.

FYI, I had thought of preempting such concerns by addressing the speed of some skillsets but the envoys didn't think that wise. After the race updates, we may ask the envoys to give us special feedback on the impact of the changes.

However, for now, let's not get off track. Focus on races.