So, I'm starting to do a lot better in combat. I switch from TP to TK, and find TK much better suits my playstyle. I'm doing much better at combating love potion, as well as timing my TK strikes with my demesne hits, often shooting for a birdepilepsy/burst/throatlock/clot on them. Seems to be working fairly well. I'm getting slightly better at hindering, and monks are much less of a problem than they use to be (but they're still pretty damn tough!). My biggest issue in general right now is keeping people in my demesne, but I think that's just something I need more practice with.

Here's the point of the post:

I hate fighting Harmonics and Paradigmatics.

Since disloyalty does nothing against researchers, I'm finding dealing with their crystals (especially without affliction messages!) to be incredibly frustrating. However, after reading a few posts in the Harmonics section, I'm starting to wonder if maybe it's just about outlasting their crystals' timespan, then catching them when they have to spin again. Other than that, I'm at a horrible loss.

And for everyone's favorite skill, how the hell do you deal with it? I fought Egran today... and frankly, I just wanted to kick myself in the face. It took him all of five seconds to make me miserable.

So - any tips, hints, tricks, or ideas for either of these would be greatly appreciated!

Tip: get the affliction messages and make triggers for them.

Harmonics + aeonics is going to thoroughly stymie any affliction class, especially when it all hinges on affliction synergy. I don't think that's a fight you can win, to be honest. Cloudcoil it up, yo, then invest in damage artis later. (By the same token, Aeromancy has enough crazy defensive stuff going for it that you should be equally immune to the researcher.)

I'm not sure if you mean BadLuck or GreyWhispers for everybody's favorite skill. If BadLuck is working you over, you might need system changes to make sure you're not spamming the things that'll proc BadLuck. If it's GreyWhispers, hide in your demesne and bask in the glory of passive curing.

or Kio could be using the term "skill" correctly and is referring to paradigmatics given the title of this thread?

In which case, Kio is being pointlessly vague and ought to just be ignored. Kio's getting the benefit of the doubt here.

Noncoms trying to troll a combat thread =

Aww, I'm sorry that people get the terminology wrong and it's so confusing.

when you type "skills" you get a list of your skills.
when you type ab you get a list of the abilities in a skill, the only reason ab on it's own produces the list of skills is because it's simpler.

If you consider yourself a combatant I would think this would be obvious to you.

Whether or not I am a noncom has little to do with my post, if your assumption is correct then it matters little, if it is not then Kio is likely not receiving the advice requested and so you may need to re-evaluate said assumption.

@Zarquan: Yes... yes... /doh

@Xavius: Paradigmatics is the skill to which I refer. It's not just BadLuck or GreyWhispers that give me problems - it's the whole skill. I don't know head from tails of it. As for the damage-artis thing... I'm more inclined to try to find a way to deal with it without needing any artifacts. Might be a little tougher, might be a little impossible, but I'm gonna try.

Also, I appreciate the benefit of the doubt. It's tough to learn even the basics when everyone dismisses you because you don't know them already.

Since you've mentioned it, what procs Badluck, anyway?

Lastly, about that 'fight you can't win,' thing... there is no such a thing! Hard works pays off, yo

P.s. When Druids lost passive shielding in Achaea, I wept tears of happiness.

EDIT: @Saran: No offense, but could you... ya know... stop irritating the people taking the time to help a little?

Stance, invoke/evoke anything, focus body/mind/spirit, and offensive actions.

(EDIT: Test done, editted accordingly.)

I am sorry that I corrected the misinterpretation of your post and was mocked for doing so. I don't particularly care at any rate, I was more here to see any comments on Paradigmatics really and felt that Xavius was not answering your questions (which you've also pointed out).

No major actions yep.

Wait wait wait. So your options for badluck come down to stand there and die because attacking might trigger it, healing might trigger it, and stances might trigger it? What the hell?

I would like to put forth the same question as Casilu.

Since it seems we are going to perpetrate the misinformation of badluck, once again, I will respond with "yes, heartstop now."

But won't badluck stop heartstop?


So friggen op.

That just seems like quite a few things it can activate on. Besides, the only information about it was what was posted in this thread which was supposedly tested by Xavius.

So, what are you supposed to do when you get badlucked? Have your system automatically stop stancing(does parrying proc it?), and doing unnessesary focuses? Or is there some trick to it that I don't know about?

The popular forum advice is 'stop focus minding while badlucked' or 'kill them before they kill you'.

Not true, there is an 8+ page thread started by Geb where misinformation flies around like trailers in a kansas tornado, where we (the people with the skill) attempted to correct the misinformation (including some of our own mistakes) throughout the thread. Yet, misinformation still gets tossed around about it and so it's better for my sanity to just nod, grin, and let y'all think what you want, cause three months from now you will be passing out the same misinformation whether we correct it again or not.

Edit:: "you" being the figurative you, not you as in you casilu you.

Which for those who do stop focus minding is good advice. I can always tell when someone is focus mind spamming or has actually fixed their curing. The former is an easy kill, the latter is often a tough fight. More so with onehanders/monks since the adjustment to lower the proc rate on one handers/monks.

I never read that thread, actually. So, yes, the only information I had was that little Xavius blurb. Whenever I see a thread with a log I exit fast and duck and cover to escape the massive suspected fallout which is usually right to expect it.