Edenwe's referencing psi choke, which is a 5 room ranged brief instant of blackout with a negligible amount of damage, to try to dodge the issue and keep the thread from derailing. Which is probably for the best, because Night Choke is a threadkiller, and we don't want to do that to a guy who has legitimate questions and actually needs help.

Night Choke falls under the Lusty Forums' Equivalent of Godwin's Law and its corollaries. (With those who actually try to defend it losing the argument by default )

Alright sounds good as far as choke goes...don't need anymore information on that. I'm finally starting to narrow down my archetype down to either Guardian, Bard, and Wiccan. I don't want to play a tree hugging hippie though which is what I'm scared Glomdoring and Serenwilde are...

Serenwilde, maybe.

HELP GLOMDORING should indicate that Glomdoring is not quite that way!

Glomdoring is definitely not tree hugging hippies. Mmmm.. tasty carrion.

Technically, Serenwilde shouldn't be either, it tends to come down to the crowd you find yourself with most. You might always see those termed "snugglies", or you might get the more serious people.

We happily execute hippies in ye olde Glomdoring.

Serenwilde has, hands down, the largest population of all organizations. That comes at a price, though: most of them are non-combatants, a very vocal part are 'snugglies', and they seem to go through drama like it's candy.

With that said, all cities have a helpful guide during most hours of the day. So you shouldn't be worried too much about not finding any help about choosing guilds, learning politics, etc.

Ugh....now just trying to find an archetype. I kinda like guardian cause it reminds me of occultist but different, same with wiccans...I'm guessing there but really I have no clue. Bards seem a ton different than Achaea just by looking at their skills. Is there one of these classes that requires more artefacts than the other? Thanks again! Everyone's been a great help so far.

I do kinda wish I hadn't played achaea....trying to switch is crazy just because I know so much about Achaea and very little about Lusternia....

I guess I should also ask...is there one archetype that there are a ton more of as far as population goes? Thanks again!

One of the cool things that Lusternia has are collegiums, except very organization specific with a list of quests to help you get acquainted with some of the basics of Lusternia and whatever city/commune you joined. They come with their very own channel, so it's pretty much guaranteed that someone in the organization will be around and able to answer your questions. So don't worry too much about the differences/finding people to help you.

cometoHallifax

Bards are hugely different from Achaean bards, yes.

Archetype population is going to vary depending on city and commune, from what I know. Also Hallifax and Gaudiguch don't have bards or monks. Yet.

Honestly, I'd recommend picking a faction you want to play as, and then picking the specific guild from there.

Warriors are rather artifact heavy, just expensive in general.

And don't worry about not knowing much, lots of people switched over from other IREs or had to learn about it fresh, the Guides tend to be helpful and of course there's the College system which gets you involved with your city/commune and people will generally answer questions if they hear them.

I'mma just say it. If you're thinking about Cantors then jump in that boat. This game needs someone who's serious about combat to give Cantors a try. Bards can be pretty darn powerful. Though Cantors has had its ups and downs - that can always change because of our envoy system. And if you come to learn the classes and combat pretty well you can probably do some nice class changes to your benefit, so long as it's balanced.

You can notice a population shift when new things are introduced to an archetype, but in general, you have at least a core number of people who tend to stick to a general archetype, really.

As for 'requiring' artifacts, I'd say bards and guardians/wiccans are pretty much fine to stand alone without artifacts, though of course getting some will help you. Shield and Gripping Runes for instruments/symbols/athames are nice for the better stats/ease of use, but you can function just as well without them.

Looks like you're getting to cutting things down to preference, which is good. In general, in my point of view, bards are greater for group support than guardians/wiccans are, but I'd place guardians/wiccans higher on a one-on-one combative perspective between the two.

Meh about the 'vocal' part. We're usually 7-10 people max, and I don't see any of these snugglers these days. So I'm guessing the majority of em are in their manses invisible to cwho, which would be more like the 'closet' type scenario and would also be highly unlikely considering our mediocre population. Serenwilde from my experience have been hella quiet and isolated, and it takes a lot effort to get people to talk with you (Good or bad thing depending on what kind of person you are). If you want a bustling community with lots of activity with really old fighters willing to share combat knowledge, I'd place my bet on the current cultural centre of the realm: Magnagora. Make alts, try em all I say.

Snugglers are everywhere, not in any particular org. So don't choose an org to "avoid snugglers".

Right, snugglers are everywhere. Some places they concentrate in, and in others they are quickly silenced (like the no-kindness orgs of Magnagora and Glomdoring.)

Alright well I'm starting to lean towards the following:
Shadowdancers
Cantors
Harbingers
Cacophony
Nihilists
Celestines.

Anyone mind going over the major differences between these? I'm still having a hard time narrowing it down. I know the cantors are bad....but what makes them bad? Which ones are good for group combat and which ones better at 1v1? Just getting an idea on these and looking into the cities and such to also help make my decision. Thanks again for all the input!

Edit: Took Nihilists and celestines off the list. Reminded me too much of apostates and priests from achaea from looking at some of their skills.

Reedit: Added them back to the list.

It's worth noting that Celestines and Nihilists play nothing like Priests and Apostates, despite having angels/demons and half-mana instakills. Nobody really uses the half-mana instakills in 1v1 (although they do see some use in groups).

From what I heard and have seen about Cantors, it's just because its Bard specialty, Starhymn, has no real tangible focus, unlike the others. Spiritsingers' Wildarrane has its eq-loss songs, Cacophony's Necroscream is centered around plague afflictions, and Harbingers' Shadowbeat revolves around mana-drain support. Thankfully, though, the Cantor's Envoy seems to be pushing for changes to the skill to make it on par with the other three.

I'll speak for Shadowdancers.

Skill-wise, we have Wicca for fae and Night. The special nightfae are barghest (paralyse), redcap (bleeding), and slaugh (skin afflictions). Since paralyse is cured by FOCUS BODY and bleeding by CLOT (both of which use mana), they are excellent in supporting a Wiccan's "instant kill" - Toadcurse, which, when a person is below 50% mana, turns that person into a toad which someone can then STOMP TOAD to kill. As for Night, it contains what is perhaps the most notorious ability in Lusternia - NIGHT CHOKE. It's aeon, and its cure is by moving away from the caster. Other nice Night abilities involve covens, groups of people who can call down buffs such as Penumbra (+charisma, gives your character age 18, ego regeneration), or combat support such as Gloomtide (removes you from personal enemy lists, and thus makes you a bit safer from enemy demesnes or bard songs) and Drink (passive healing and curing).

Our tertiaries are Healing, Hexes, and Astrology. Healing is, hands down, the best defensive skill in the game. You can cure yourself freely (without eq-loss), or others. You can radiate healing auras which will cure you passively. Hexes, on the other hand, is more offense-focused. Astrology is random, since its buffs and/or maluses depends on the star and planetary positions. At times it's weak, or formidable to the point of ridiculous - all depending on the stars.

RP-wise, we're the spiritual leaders of the Glomdoring Commune, following Mother Night. She is beautiful, manipulative, ruthless. Out of all the Glomdoring guilds (and maybe even out of all Lusternian guilds), we're probably the strictest when it comes to titles and hierarchy. We primarily hate Moon, the Moondancers, and Serenwilde by extension - the conflict I'll advise you to find out in-game, because it's fairly deep and very interesting.

I may not be allowed to kill them on the spot, but I personally tolerate 'snugglers' when I'm around.

Also we're not just a bunch of tree-hugging hippies. I think Serenwilde has the longest and most brutal history out of all the orgs. And we endorse baby killing.

I contest the 'most brutal org history' title for Glomdoring!

See, Lehki tolerates snugglers.

Also: Serenwilde, brutal history? Please! Rainbows everywhere over there.