With some recent news, I've made a resolution to make another stab at Lusternia - I have an excuse to write a system now (since I have none and cannot stand to play on flash/java for long), so I figured maybe now would be the best time to consider a class change. It would be great to be able to build my system around being my class, but I feel like the best way to return to playing and being interested in with a sharp change in concept or 'scenery' so to speak.

I'm currently a Tahtetso with Transcendant Acrobatics and Tahtetso - and a pretty heavy investment in Harmony. I have a few other things - Trans Combat, Expert Planar, some odds and ends in other places. I know that Trans Planar is highly recommended for serious PKers (of which I would likely attempt to be) - but I figure I can suffer without Conglut for a little while. I can access Astral for bashing. Anyways, my questions are as followed:

What is the popular Knight specialization right now? Is Knight still very expensive to access higher or middle tiers of combat as (greatrunes, etc)?

Is Cantor an effective PK route, and is Bard an easy class to get in to? Is it expensive like I speculate Knight is?

Are there any incredibly notable Cantor fighters? Is their community/guild population friendly or accepting of combatants?'

Would I need to change race as either archetype (Bard or Knight) to do well in combat? I'm not particularly attached to Loboshigaru (I'd prefer Human or Elfen, honestly, since it's aesthetically pleasing to me in a roleplay sense).

My heart is set on one of those, or staying Monk - I'd enjoy Aquamancer, I figure, but I'm not so sure I have the patience for stuff like demesnes and I don't do well with the pressure of being the rock of team combat (as this is what I understand demesne users happen to be in Lusternia).

Remember you're not limited to just guilds in Celest! Feel free to expand your horizons!

Since it seems like you are planning on staying in Celest, the only answer I can give is this-- yes, to compete in ANY upper tier combat is expensive, and knights are one of the most expensive.

Warriors are still very expensive, though they did lower the price of the runes a bit.

I would switch to different cities (Ninjakari interests me a lot), but I'm admittedly held in one place by somebody else I enjoy playing the game with (which is for the better, by the way) - and she does not like switching sides rampantly. I made her suffer it too much in Imperian, so the least I can do is stick to one side of the fence for Aoife's sake.

I am noticing this. I understand the cost needed to be on top, but can you get by with skill and a rune or two? Do you need the biggest, baddest level of wounding greatrune, for example? I figure this is the first and foremost investment for a Knight, since wounds are everything from what I hear.

Is there any chance of convincing you to become a Celestine?

A slight one, though it would take some convincing - I'm already considering Axelord Paladin.

Warriors are iffy. If you have runes and/or Demigod, you're golden. If you don't, expect some difficulty killing people, especially as a 2h. Plus you'll have to taking Forging for your weapons since most forgers do it for themselves and then take another skill set, or keep Forging just for the coal runes.

Celestine is actually still a viable affliction class. Tarot is a more than solid tertiary right now. I believe Fool Tarot is quite useless still, but World was buffed for the better. Heretic/Infidel/Inquisition + Soulless is how you'll kill most higher-up people, and it is a viable spec if you don't have artifacts. But you need to be at least Tri-Trans, or at least Trans Celestialism, Up to Soulless in Tarot, and up to Inquisition in Sacraments. Which are both Mythical, which isn't far at all from Transcendant really. Despite popular belief from a certain spectrum of the playerbase, Inquisition actually does take some semblance of talent to pull off. Not as much as Crucify as a Nihilist granted, but still a fair bit of skill.

Cantors are okay. They're not great, they're not terrible. It's between them or Cacophony for worst Bard, and it's debatable on which one is. CrusaderCanto, PrincessFarewell, Recessional, etc. are the only worthwhile skills. I think you'll mostly be consigned to trying to stick people in Octave and landing AchromaticAura and CrusaderCanto for damage really. For most bards, it's either go Spiritsinger or go home. Though I've seen a fair bit of competant bards from any guild, so any of them can serve you well. Spiritsinger is just ezmode compared to the rest, however.

I think my overall suggestion is.. If you don't have a lot of credits, Cantor. If you can at least Tri-Trans, go Celestine. If you can afford the runes, go Axelord Paladin. Or branch out. It's ultimately up to you.

I like my fool tarot! If you intend to use inquisition you will need trans discipline to pull it off consistently - otherwise you're just going to have to rely on luck that the 'glows' happen enough times for you to regenerate power. Inquisition isn't required to pull off a soulless, however.

Also as a Celestine you get a lot of different kill methods: soulless, absolve, and judgement. Judgement is nice in group settings, and even viable 1v1 with the right afflictions and some luck. Absolve is hard against demi's and people with a ton of mana that know what they're doing, unless you have other people who can drain mana to coordinate with you, but other than absolve, you'll also need contemplate in discernment, to view your enemies mana state. It's possible to do an absolve without it, but much more difficult, and a failed absolve still costs 8 power.

Biggest downside to celestine is that after wrath/enigma are used up, things get very difficult. It's hard to change strategy.

I feel that Fool is useless because any possible tarot that it could be (Aeon, Lovers, Lust, Moon, HangedMan) can be detected and determined by just doing sip quicksilver, stand, reject , eat/focus, etc. Usually it's either Aeon, Lust, or Hangedman. Which would just be Sip Quicksilver, Reject Celestine, Stand to detect.

Absolve is difficult because you don't really have way of sticking a lack of mana on someone, unlike Wiccans that have sleeplock. Judgement is good for groups, that's about it.

Okay, next question: am I gimping myself heavily by picking Pureblade over Axelord? I understand from a few friends who play and fight that Pureblade is falling behind the other three Knighthood specializations due to its patented lack of a reliable and 'spammable' stun - and stuns seem to be a big thing due to how well healing has progressed in Lusternia. I like the imagery of both, but I have some insurances from people if I go Pureblade. I'd rather go Pureblade based off of imagery, but I'm partially a minmaxer, so if Axelord is truly and outright better right now, I'll pick it up instead and likely get used to it.

I mean, I use a terrible looking axe in WoW, and I have to actually LOOK at that one.

Axelord is outright better, especially for non-demi non-runes.

Welcome back.

Come2Glom!

Anyway, Knights are still really expensive. It is possible to be a good one without runes but you will lack that extra step up to top tier if you arent at least a demigod most of the time. Race wise most things can work, but bards will tear you open if you have any magic resistance. Desitrus can handle knighthood spec, hes been like all of em.

I love bards, not as much as Nihilist (I loved the variety of options mainly, yay for quik wrack and damage), but bard has alot of neat little things. The only problem is your combat stems from your novice skillset of music so you can actually fight decently with little lessons. Your tertiary is pretty much going to be glamours and you want to get that high up, tarot would work too but doesnt mesh well. Cantors have a report coming at some point to change starhymn so they might be getting alot more usable, we will see.


Celestine mainly uses inquisition and soulless, they use absolve very very rarely 1 on 1. Judgement is almost unheard of against people who know what it is since its usually easy to stop and you have almost nothing to stop people from leaving.


Aqua is nice if you like group control, otherwise you will generally avoid it ( unless you like telepathy combos then you would love it ).


Monk isnt really bad though, they also have a report coming so you can expect changes with momentum and such. I might suggest monk for bashing while you work on things though.

All your call in the end though.

So, after a mess of learning lessons and such, I finally came down to the conclusion of Bonecrusher Paladin. Time to get things in order. However, this opens up some new questions:

Demigod is necessary, I know.

Is Human as worth it as people make it out to be, especially for Warrior?

yes

Is it common knowledge how Humans evolve, in the Warrior archetype? Is it maybe listed somewhere?

edit: Nevermind, some questions with somebody got me the answer I needed.