This.

Lusternia is so group PvP based, that I think if you are only thinking of group PvP as your PvP source (which is probably easier to do than finding solo PvP), then there are lots of potential good low-credit guilds. Just obtain an ability to move people around or something and choose a durable race and you should be contributing just with that

What Shamarah said. Best to just jump in as what you most like the theme of, otherwise you'll regret it anyway.

There's no truly terrible class, but the individual archetype mechanics differ in such a way that some are easier to use and some are more difficult, but none of them are flat-out unusable.

(but don't choose Cantors ).

P.S. What's your IG name, or have you not even made a character yet?

On a sidenote, IS a Guardian character expensive to skill up, or do you just need tri-trans and the basics (Combat, Discipline to a certain point, the obvious Conglut)? I have trans Resilience, Combat, will be tri-trans when Illuminati open, and am practically trans Discipline - it's just a matter of a handful of lessons I'll have left over when I buy 2,000 lessons eventually. Beyond that, do you really need much? I mean, Gedulah/Green comes to mind, too.

Guardians usually "need" discernment too, so you can tell when they have low enough mana to perform the mana-kill-move.

I was told the mana kill move is horrifically inefficient and useless to pull off, and that the sacrifice/judgment variant is the best?

...

Whoever told you that would seem to be rather mistaken, heh.

It's harder to pull of a wrack than an absolve, but it also has less penalty when you whiff it. Wrack / toadcurse / absolve are all feasible, but take prep-work. Judgement and sacrifice take completely different forms of prepwork (same with Soulless). Completely different kill methods for each, and some will work better on some people / classes than others. For example, mana kills are often really good on warriors... especially warriors who are surged.

Just as Xavius said in the other thread, you can't rely on the 1-2-3 "this is the way to go all the time every time" method, because if you're doing that it's most likely OP and going to get fixed. You have to explore all your options and realize which option is the right one for the situation.

I'm not sure how it's horrifically inefficient. It's pretty easy to pull off in groups if you trigger the contemplation line to pop them right when they hit 50%. In 1v1 it's harder to drain most people to 50%, yes, but you can get quick kills with absolve in a lot of other (more common) scenarios.

Don't listen to Xenthos, he's never played a guardian and has no idea what he's talking about. Absolve is awful awful awful in 1v1 and Wrack isn't much better (don't even try to compare them to Toadcurse, Wiccans play completely different and have access to many tools that Guardians do not). You don't need Discernment to kill as a Guardian, but you do need a certain amount of Discipline (I forget how much) to physically be able to do Inquisition at all, and it definitely helps for pulling off a Sacrifice.

The whole thing about "picking the right kill for the situation" is also complete BS. In 1v1, Inqui-soulless is always the right kill for the situation.

However, this only applies for Celestines and Nihilists. Manakills might actually be viable for Halliguardians or Gaudiguardians - who knows.

See, where you're going wrong is the assumption that the game is 1v1.

It's not.

How many 1v1 fights do you get these days, really?

I prefer 1v1, realistically, and if I started hunting people, would offer them that alternative to settle a dispute. I do so elsewhere, I'm not changing my MO much.

Admittedly, I'm also more prone to listen to Shamarah since I'm to understand he's a pretty big badass when it comes to Guardian combat.

What you prefer and the reality of the game are two vastly different things. Even jumping people rarely ends 1v1. Not judging your skill, but I doubt you'll ever be able to 'hunt' people individually who might be pissing you off - the people that piss people off are usually newb or giant. 1v1 only happens in the arena in duels, rarely does it happen elsewhere, nor is a 1v1 fight ever meaningful.

Well, that will change things; but you also have to realize that you're not likely to get many takers. Most of the 1v1 folk have drifted away or don't really offer much any more (or, when they do, it's only against people they know they're going to win against which renders the whole exercise pointless).

Mana kills are extremely powerful in group combat, far more so than health (there's DMP and such for health, and warriors tend to have surge up in group combat), so it's really easy to take a warrior out of the battle quickly if you work together at it. To adequately use it though you need to know how much mana they have and then it helps to trigger off that line.

Well obviously absolve is good in group combat. Honestly though, who enjoys group combat? It's horrible and boring, the reason to get into combat is 1v1.

My advice is to just jump people alone, and then if they call in their friends, run away and declare victory/taunt them through tells for being baddies.

To which they say, "Yeah, whatever." and don't care, heh.

You'd be surprised how many people can be taunted into dueling you, actually. Anyway, 1v1 is the fun part of the game, I don't see what the point is of building your character for the boring part. 1v1 is also the only way anyone is ever going to respect you as a fighter.

Fun... for certain people, but not for everyone. Or, at this point, most of the players it seems.

Perhaps I would be surprised by how many people can be taunted into a duel, but I'm guessing they don't fall for it again... at least, they shouldn't, heh.

The reality of the situation is that 1v1 is mostly gone at this point.

I have a lot of fun talking trash. Ask Shamarah.

Honestly, if they have to call help when I gank them, I call that a personal victory on its own. I also like 1vMany combat ANYWAYS, so I'm perfectly comfortable with this.

To me, group combat is just as fun than 1v1, because usually when there's a group fight, you're actually trying to achieve something (domoths, raid, defence) and so that sense of achievement is what makes it fulfilling. Killing people is fun too (ie trolling in Faethorn) but I think there's just a greater meaning to it when it comes to groups (and when you win against the odds).


By the way, Cambrian, not all tertiaries are considered viable for 1v1. But, like, anyone can be useful in group combat, heck, buy a web enchant and you're good to go.

If you can do pretty much anything and still be useful in group combat, what's the use in having eleventy billion abilities from 3-5 trans skill sets? I suppose the obvious answer is that you'll contribute more to group combat if you're stronger and better prepared.

I'm personally glad to hear that 1 vs. 1 serves as little more than entertainment, for the most part. That's pretty obvious even to a new player, though; there doesn't appear to be any significant gold, essence, power, or game mechanical "reputation" gain from PK. I think I read you do get experience, but I'm betting it's so wildly inconsistent and unreliable as to not even be a factor. Players working together as a community and/or team to achieve goals is what has made all MUDs and MMOs, past and present, great (or not).

In response to some earlier questions: I'm not really over-thinking this all that much. I chose my current guild two weeks ago, and I think I'm learning well enough. However, at this time, I do not wish to reveal my in-game identity to the forum (or vice versa) for a number of reasons — chief among them being that, if I step on someone's toes here, I don't want it carried over into the game (and again, vice versa). Lusternians are actually much better about this inappropriate behavior than Achaeans seem to be, but I'm still exercising discretion. If I choose to stay in Lusternia permanently, I'm sure it will come out sooner or later.

It's difficult to know what to expect from a guild (or commune, or tertiary skill set), even having played regularly for about two RL weeks. It probably takes months to really form a useful personal opinion about game mechanics, and I do not quiz people in-game about this sort of thing (even with OOC tags in tells, it's disruptive), which is why I like to discuss it here to find out as much as I can.