In the Institute v Aeromancer decision, you must also consider that the Aeromancers are all crazy. The Institute is quite obviously superior.

...I've played an Aeromancer. Apparently people just need to learn what they're doing.

Researcher is a heavily defensive playstyle, by far the heaviest defense of any class in the Basin. You'll learn combat more by learning how to counter what your opponent is doing first, and stopping every method of killing you, and then working on your offense. Aeromancer has a stronger straightforward offense, however demesnes require preparation, and people are very used to fighting mages (Put up love potion, ..., profit) However, fighting a researcher can be trickier. I have about three good ways I can kill people, and any them are viable on just about any target. I stick to soulless because it's a powerless instant kill, and we're practically built to use it, but aeonlocks have served me well on more perceptive targets with ghost and mantrawind, but even still I generally aeonlocked, then soullessed behind our passive blackout ability.

There is, however, one more thing to consider. There is exactly 1 researcher fighter presently, whereas there are probably 20-30 of the various mage guilds and in general they play very similarly to one another. So, if you are learning combat from scratch there will be more mages that can teach what you need to be doing. With researcher, you will have to figure out a lot of it on your own, because it doesn't play like any other class

First off, thank you everyone.
I have found all of the replies quite helpful.



I have managed well as a Druid in the past... mostly, I used dreamweaving motes. Setting up a demesne is not that big of a deal... but it irritated me to the extreme that a love potion could so quickly, and passively, render the demesne useless- and rejecting really takes you off balance.
And for a reason I cannot place my finger on, TK always made me disoriented... with all the skills. I think this is partially because I jumped to "tri-trans" quickly and found the amount of skills to be overwhelming.

I am leaning towards Researchers at the moment... but going over the helpfiles... it seems like -allot- of writing is expected. To be honest, I am learning for a degree and other applications in real-life... I just can't bring myself to actually sit down and begin writing essays for a game. I would rather take the same energy and put it into the RL projects I have going.
Can someone from within the Researchers tell me more? is it really that demanding?

Are the Aeromancers significantly lighter on that front?

You can get to GR3 without any writing at all, probably pretty easily as a returning player. We've been going through the requirements recently to make them a little less "essay" focused. I'm a student too, so I know how it feels to write for school and work and then be mandated to write for a game you're trying to enjoy in your free time.

I think the Aeromancers have a more "pick and choose" kind of system, but its been awhile since I've seen it so might not want to take my word for it.

Don't get me wrong, I think that the institute really should be essay based... that's in the RP... or at least, "logic is everything" themed. But yeah, you kind of need to find the wiggle room between being "scientific" and remembering that your player base is, in many cases, consisted of people who work/study/both for a living... and this is supposed to be the way they have fun.

They walk up imaginary steps. In the air.

I am gonna try and go ninja on you all and ask a bit more about the Illuminati- how's the RP? PVP viability?

I know I know I am running in circles, just shows I actually care though

Sup! Player of Iytha, the Illuminati's Archprelate and guild envoy reporting in.

RP-wise, the Illuminati are doing fairly well at the moment. Or at least I think so. I may be a tiny bit biased. Recent RP things:
-We've finally just started including Rites of Initiation into the guild advancement again, wherein the advancement tests are little mini-rituals such as a trial by combat (to test if you have herbs/curing potions without having to fiddle with people's inventory) and the Trial of Initiation, where you are tested on your ability to discover guild secrets by snooping around our library and/or spying on the higher ups. Adoption on this has been slowed somewhat due to the Grand Cipher going inactive, but the upcoming election should fix that.
-We're planning to open up our secrets somewhat to people outside the guild and start up a sort of "outer order" clan where people can seek enlightenment with the Illuminati even if they aren't one themselves.
-We have many interesting individuals, such as Arunasapta (our fanatic Mysrain death cultist), Ixchilgal (gruff old man who was old when the hills were young), Seraku (local dracnari expert and ex-assassin) and myself (the much reviled publisher of the Gaudiguch Gossip newspaper)
-The secret histories of the Illuminati have still yet to be stolen/uncovered.
-We have ribbachi (invisible, silent frogs that spy on people remotely) and homunculus (mini-versions of yourself that can be ordered to do just about anything you can do), which is a great deal of fun to play with and occasionally practical if you like spying on people and listening to the secret meetings of the Iron Council.

Combatwise, the Illuminati are monk tier, and generally regarded as slightly OP. Our offense is more like a wiccan's than a Nihilist's with multiple entities all attacking at once. We also have badluck, which is an uncurable 15% chance to eat the afflicted's balance when they try to attack/eat a herb, and of course access to tarot, astrology and hexes with all of the various powers therein. Ixchilgal and Haiden are good people to talk to if you want to learn how Illuminati fight.

A few warnings, though:

-Illuminati have the weakest bashing offense out of all of the guardian guilds, which is only somewhat compensated for by having one of the better bashing defenses.
-Transmology is a complicated skillset. About half the skills in it involve a choice between 3 possible transformations, each of which gives you a defense or an active skill.
-Some of the people in Gaudiguch are a bit snuggly and, well, useless. Most people aren't, and those that are mostly get ignored as long as they don't do anything too dumb.

Thank you for the input!!!
Deciding is becoming harder by the minute.

I am actually struggling between two choices.
1- Illuminati
2- Researcher

Dropped Aeromancers for the time being because it bears too much resemblance to past experiences.

Pros of Illuminati:
1- Gaudiguch's theme of Chaos and mysticism appeals to me more than cold hard logic.
2- the skillsets look neat

Cons of Illuminati:
1- From personal experience, though it had been a year since, Gaudiguch was quite inactive and wasn't really involved in the basin. I saw very little effort to actually progress and make the city better. From what I understand, there's still allot of drama there.
2- Least effective bashing skill
3- Not being able to summon your ents back.
4-Considered OP and will probably be hit with a nerf.

Pros of Institute:
1- Never been to Hallifax
2- The skillsets look neat

Cons of Researchers:
1- Not sure how I feel about "order" as a theme. The mad scientist archtype doesn't appeal to me that much(I don't mean insane, but... will tread on all toes for the sake of the experiment).
2- Possibly be hit by a nerf.

What's your take?
I know I dug this to the grave... but it actually means something to me
Credits is not something I will be able to buy tons of... and wasting any would really spoil the chance of me continuing to play.

We do have a skill to call our ents back. FLESHCALL RETURN.

I think some of my confusion is because I read different posts from very different time intervals.
I forgot that a good while passed since the guilds in Hallifax and Gaudiguch were opened.

I decided to go with Researchers. We'll see how it goes

Thank you all!

Illuminati have already been nerfed. Not saying that they won't get hit by another when players get frustrated again, though!

Yeah that's my point, they already went through the first review... from here on out it can always happen.