Currently, I'm a Mythical TK Geomancer. I get by alright, but recently I came into a large number of credits (yay quiz!). I them on various things, but I'm currently faced with a choice I've been unsure about for a while: should I switch from telekinesis to what appears to be the vastly superior telepathy?

I have enough lessons to Transcend either of them - if I switch now. I don't have enough to trans TK and, if I don't like heartburst, switch to TP.

Phantasms, especially, seems to mesh with TP much better than TK. Geomancy meshes well with either of them.

TK tends to be a war of attrition - you need to survive long enough in order to get vessels up, something which is especially difficult and subject to chance. Surviving will be difficult whether I'm TP or TK - if someone mentions forcefield, keep in mind I have to lock a channel (losing a third of my offense) and risk burning out very quickly. TK has the advantage of things like magnetize for enemy weapons, trip, fling, etc. Choke is especially useful in group battles (2-3 sec blackout), as is throatlock (cannot sip until focus body).

TP battles, as far as I've seen, tend to be much more fast-paced. A lot more skill is required on the part of the receiver, with regards to curing hidden afflictions, etc. You have the bonus of being able to use phantom afflictions to a greater degree, and can give a variety of useful afflictions.

However, being TK gives me the advantage of people not knowing how to fight a TK so much (this is not quite so prevalent in the higher echelons of combat, of course). I'm also fairly unique - the only other TK I can think of is Iytha.

So, advice: switch or not?

Give support either way - is heartburst not so hard to do as I think, and mindburst harder? Will I find TP having so many more strategies cut out simply because people know how to counter them? Should I get claws (currently up to Terrain) and go for a pure bleeding kill? Is that reliable? Things like that.

Heartburst isn't that viable of an insta kill. Most people will just bleed to death if they manage to screw up their curing bad enough to get the required vessels.

TK also got a big nerf last envoy go around, for whatever reason.

TP is easy and with some basic combos you can cure 70% of lusternia.

When you get towards the higher tiers, both kind of suck. Mindblast lacks the power to actually kill someone who can cure/tank well, and psychicvamp is too slow. The scaling or TP is pretty harsh. The damage it dishes out is never scary, but the hidden afflictions and stacked correctly can screw up a lot of systems. Good illusions go a long ways too. TP is easy to pick up and use if you understand channels. As I said, you'll be able to macro mash your way to victory against a lot of people with little thought involved. I.e. Dysolis, Crystian.

I would suggest TP because TK is kind of borked at the moment. Barrier and Forcefield is nice, but vessels suck. TP is nice for team combat. Geo TPs can stack some pretty nasty passives on top of their active affs.

Please define "borked".

'd up.

Go dreamweaver!

(Disclaimer: Do not go dreamweaver. Ever.)

Seriously, though, keep in mind that you will need contemplate to kill people using mindburst (or was it mindblast? Whichever skill kills at half ego.) Anyway, you need to know what ego your opponent is at. So add that to your lesson calculations. I'm not sure heartburst was actually intended to be used, so not liking heartburst is a bad yardstick to go by. It's not as bad as EternalSleep (which was never intended to be used, ever) but by the time you stack 12 burst vessels, your opponent should already be dead. Especially if you're using claws. Passive bleeding stacking with more passive bleeding should help. Or poison your animated dagger, and send it in under blackout. The timing would be tricky, but you could do it. Would haemotox help bleeding kills? Just throwing out ideas here. Burst isn't your only skill, after all.

No, I won't. Psionics has egoscan, which tells you the target's ego. I'd sacrifice a small portion of my offense to use it, but it's preferable.

And I don't know if I could do contemplate off psi-balance anyway - channels don't line up perfectly!

EDIT: And as to the rest - shrugging ruins animatedagger. It really does. Blackout lasts two seconds and can be used every six, dagger is locked on Id and hits every four (until I unlock it). Id balance is based on current ego. If I'm using blackout, dagger, I can use burst, pyre, trip, sweat, forcefield, amnesia, alteraura, or various other skills, the most powerful of which are burst and pyre (pyre does roughly 1/4 of the target's current health if they're already on fire, or sets them on fire with much less damage if they're not).

DOUBLEEDIT: And isn't it discern that shows ego? Isn't contemplate mana-only?

Bah. Forgot that they moved dagger to id channel when they nerfed it. And you're right, discern is what I was thinking of, which is even higher up the skillset. Once again, I don't know what I'm talking about. But yeah, it does look like burst would be your major offense (I'm guessing pyre can only be used on one channel) and since burst was nerfed... I'm going to say go TK. Or you could be a real rebel and try runes.

All things considering i think they are about equal, albeit:

1. Telepathy - Bear in mind that mindblasts health damage component can be amplified by the various buffs found in the game. If you are gonna be demi with karma/domoth/runes etc.. you can prolly reach about 1.8kh damage.. You can verify this by looking at old forren logs.. i.e. He kills people with 1.5kh remaining.. A Mindblast this powerful in combination with your demesne effects that does +800h damage -- and you got a nice thing going in there.

Telepathy is also far easier to use.. any combination of paralysis/peace/amnesia/stupidity + mindblast/psyvamp would be the 'standard' telepathic attacks..

Plus, you can create your own domination tricks.. Dominate to unenemy, to attack someone else, etc.. lots of things you can come up with..

With that said - you are forced to use the super channel all the time.. Losing balance for 6sec in a basin where warriors and monks attacks every 2sec is quite painful.. and what if love potion ticks at the start of mindblast/vamp? Such long balance loss causes very big problems..

2. Telekinesis -
Goes better in combination with someone else. Aeon+throatlock/trip/burst.. 2 brokenlimbs/blackout +crucify? leglock/magnetize/dagger+grapple&throw whoring monk..

Also, depending on the opponent, you can customize your strategy, so its more versatile.. (more throatlock against bards, magnetize/leglock against warriors.. etc..) - but it is far harder to use correctly..

TK has the same problem with long balance times. Choke (the blackout one) is super only (the six-second channel). Throatlock is super/id (id varies with a base of five). Pyre and burst are, yes, sub only (four seconds).

Can't do two broken limbs and blackout - choke is on super, psychicfist is super and id. My current 'assist combo' is choke on super, throatlock on id, trip on sub.

Leglock/magnetize/dagger is an option, but I'm utter :censored: over by anyone with a disruption scroll. That's another big problem with TKs. I'm also far less versatile, as I've got every channel locked and I need to unlock them, wait for balance, and then re-use them. If you use a disruption scroll and hit sub, I'm off-balance for eight seconds if I put it up again (four from disruption, four from when I re-lock it). Super? Twelve. I need to either abandon my offense or abandon my channels.

And I know TK goes well with someone else - but TP does too.

well, it seems youve made up your mind.. dont let us stop you..

I'm waiting for someone who uses either TK or TP at the moment, and has preferably used both in the past, to post their opinion.

Esano, what I have to say here is simple- stick with Telekinesis
I'll elaborate later when I'm awake, but belive me when I tell you, a Telekinetic can spoil a warriors day, without even attacking.

I have used it before in the past.. was a mythical tk and was a transcendant tp..

You mean magnetize? It works for monks, too (double kata time! I wonder how that works with momentum). Once again, however, you have disruption scrolls.

Believe me, I've tried it. I can ruin a warrior's day if I try, but I cripple the rest of my offense. Especially as they can swing with one hand off-balance, remember, and if I magnetize both I have my sub channel locked and can't burst. And you can't staff someone to death.

But I'll wait! Hopefully it's something I haven't thought of.

Telekinesis is a mostly dead art.

My suggestion:

Depends on your combat style actually....

Telepathy has dominate and some fancy tricks but isnt as useful in top tier.

I also suggest dreamweaving if you can be tricky and know how to handle your offense but its not as easy to use, though doesnt throw your bal for 6s.

*removed possible bug* Magnetize did bump up a 2-second strike to 4.3 seconds, but I doubt I could still outpace wounds.

Mindblast SEEMS nice, but 1800 is pretty much the damage cap when you are buffed out the butt. Good curing and about 5k health can tank that forever. The damage seems nice, in practice, it's not.



I was geo champion as a TP (back when my connection didn't give me perma lag on all commands). I tried TK. TK is better for holding demesnes, forcefield makes you quite tanky for a mage. TP is better for out of demesne



Lol, no it's not. Don't listen to him.


Anyways, if it's any help, now that there is someone running for ninja champ that could actually do a decent job...I will most likely be going Geo TK by the end of the week. Barrier+chasm+illithoid forcefield=fun.

Two TKs are infinitely better than one, yes. In that case, I think I'll hold out for a bit and see.

it is not actually.. I've killed monks with 5k health using mindblast.. and the old forren logs have some decent examples of him killing a few demi using telepathy..

Or actually, this might be from memory.. but was amazed before he can kill some people i thought was unkillable via telepathy..

Disruption scrolls is the bane of a telekinetics existence.. how can a simple scroll be enough to override a psionicist control of his faculties I cannot imagine.. arent they the 'professionals'? im of the opinion that it should just 'disrupt' the channel, and prevent it from being used for a time, but not force you to unlock.. i.e. maybe just 10s of a locked channel not working or something..



Two psyvamping telepath is awesome too..

Im still of the opinion they are roughly the same.. just that tk is harder to use in practice.. but it is nicer in group fights.. you can magnetize two, dagger another.. then get out of there and start staffcasting a few rooms away.. you are both passively/actively helping the group...

Telepathy and its mindburst is more viable than heartburst though.. I have never been able to heartburst anyone but have mindbursted a lot of people back in the day..

anyway, sup to you..

I killed Rika, a 10k health warrior with mindblast. Stating that you've beaten someone with so and so health isn't proof that TP damage is decent. Telepathy is powerful in the sense that it's a noob slayer. It will steamroll over mediocre systems. It is worthless against good systems. 1800 every 6 seconds is tankable. (which Esano will not be reaching). A TP could hit Vathael or Thoros or Ceren for an hour and not kill them. Their curing can handle telepathy.

Disruption sucks. I tried to envoy a fix, but it never happened. The solution, however, is simple. No one actually carries disruption scrolls.

Still, TP is infintely better than TK. TK has the fatal flaw of not being able to hinder in the least.