Ok then, now that I have established that I really dislike how raiding undefended cabals is encouraged, I will explain the benefits of changing this.

- Less pendulum, if you log on alone, it's nice to have your item
- No need for mid-low level characters to endlessly retrieve while a
huge enemy hero group just rolls over the inner in 2 rounds. It gets
old really quick.
- Risk taking encouraged more (awesome!!)

So, what would I wish to see done? I previously mentioned that small boons (like minor imm exp gains, whatever), or at least positive acknowledgment of characters who take the raid where it's rough. Also, cut slack in the why aren't all the cabals raided already department (also Empire).

Other hardcoded changes could also be made. Specifically in cabal guardian mechanics. Right now, cabal guardians are fairly weak in the hp department, and geared to have a high damage output. They are kind of like an extra boost in damage output. What I would like to see happen, is make their offense weaker, defense higher. Destructor's flurry will rip apart most level 30-40s. Nova from archmage. Divine retribution could outright kill a level 40 duergar, if he does not have lots of preps. So, what you would see is cabal inners with mayby half or even 30% the damage output, double the hp. The skills they would use, would be tactical advantages designed to help a defender. Blindness, dirt kick, eyejab, rescue (perhaps some form of distract or whatever mongoose or dillo has), dispel, various lagging skills etc. etc, basicly anything that makes it easier for the defenders to fight, instead of just lowering the attackers hp by a set amount.

Benefits of this would be to allow lower level raiders to actually participate in taking the item, since they would not be torn apart by the inner. Ofcourse it would take level 35 character longer than a level 51 to kill the inner, but it would still be conceivable, even with defenders involved. It would also imo make taking on large raids easier, things like 5 on 2 raids usually turn into a huge cluster#### really quick, since by the time defenders have prepped and get there, the inner is writhing and unless the defenders are already grouped and at 100% hp, it turns into two quick 5 on 1 spankdowns. After the change, perhaps people would get blinded to make directing harder, the inner might intercept/rescue and ease off the damage the defenders are taking, and in general give the defender more leeway to use tactics against the raiders, but without outright beefing the inner into some super monster of certain death.

This same could be applied to outer guards. They should do more tactical skills like lag, dirt kick etc., and less straight up melee damage. Face it, the outer's melee damage is what kills any possibilites to retrieve for low level characters. To make it a more viable feat for even characters in their teens, also make the out guards tank worse. I am kind of torn on whether it is a good idea, but outer guards could also have damage reduction that goes up based on level. Level 20 people would see 20% reduction, and heroes would see 51%.

As an additional thing for inners, perhaps give them prog more firepower when there is no one who can defend against the raider. Ghosts would have to count here. If there is no one in the range of the raider in question, the inner will be progging nasty stuff, making it a bitch to kill. This would take care of lame tactics, like sending the unopposed level 37 dude to grind down the inner, just to force the solo hero to try and retrieve from 5 enemies. And to cut down the keen interest in taking items from undefended cabals.