Tue Mar 5 21:18:23 2013

At 11 o'clock AM, Day of the Great Gods, 5th of the Month of the Winter Wolf
on the Theran calendar Bofin perished, never to return.

Race:	gnome
Class:	shapeshifter
Level:	51
Alignment:	Neutral
Ethos:	Neutral
Cabal:	NEXUS, Nexus, Seekers of Balance
Age:	151
Hours:	102

So,

It seems as though I will not be adding shapeshifter to the 'classes I was successful with" list.

This was my first hero mage ever, in the 10 or so years I have been playing.

Also, my first serious nexun..

I learned two things: I don't like shifters at all, and I didn't really like the Nexus cabal mechanics.

Shifter:

Offense form felt like a watered down melee class with far less options while in combat. I landed the wolverine, which I guess is good...personally I disagree. The lashback ability didn't fire that often even on deathblows, and I found the damage output to be less than lvl 30 RBW's I've played.

Air form - Landed hummingbird, was somewhat neat. It seems like they toned this down since I fought against them several years back. I remember the hummingbird being WAY WAY more dodgy than I was with it.

The biggest thing I hated about Shifter:

Inability to speak via cabal/etc. You think ragers have it hard what with 'no preps/escape' Try not being able to communicate mid battle...period..ever. Unless of course you want to fight out of form...Sucks.


On to the Nexus cabal:

I found being in Nexus somewhat disappointing. I loved all the players I was interacting with, I just feel that the cabal mechanic sucks.

Point in case was the time I argued with someone over having killed a rager and 'weakening' the veil too much. Seriously, ragers are the die hard enemies of nexus...I found this mechanic to be total fail.

Also, it'd be really super-duper if having eye up alerted you to changes in the balance. Much like detect magic allows you to sense changes to the veil. I cannot express how damn annoying it is to have to call 'gauge' every 5 damn minutes out of fear that some over-zealous Heroimm is gonna crack down on you for not noticing the balance 'shift' every other ####ing second.

Vanguard: Maybe does something, I noticed no real difference.
Eye of equilibrium: eh, necessary due to the crazy mechanics

The bond:

Pretty cool, but given current combat mechanics I find that the 'Bond failing' when you leave the room doesn't work. The grace period before loss of bonus HP needs to be longer.

All in all, I rank nexus cabal powers at the bottom of the totem pole. in usefulness/power.

In Summary:

I may try a mage again - it will not be a shifter.
It is extremely unlikely that I will play a nexun again.


This was my first character after a near 3 year hiatus, thank you to everyone who suffered through my rust.

Olthundor - thanks for helping me with wands/running me all over. I really appreciated it. Most of the stuff I had done long long ago, and you really gave me a good refresher

Urgraj - I liked PK'ing with you. Your aggressiveness meshes well with me, as I am pretty aggressive as well.

Mylene - Good job, and thank you for giving me those black rods that saved my rump more than once.

Tinwold - Thanks for all your help with my wands as well. I appreciated running around with you

Santorsa - Yeah, I will pretty much argue about killing ragers until I am blue in the face. Because, I feel that a nexun should kill a rager on sight period, if that isn't the case then I think the cabal mechanics are completely ####ed and need re-working

I am sorry I couldn't make the shifter work, I just really did not enjoy myself while playing it.

The thing to remember about shapeshifters is that the gear requirement is SO low. All you have to do with a gnome shapeshifter is learn some basic gear locations and you can roll around with 1000-1200 hp. Even most RBW's need a decent set to be deadly or a ton of RNG luck.

Wolverine is quite good. It isn't lashback that does it but rake as you can help permalag someone. Furor as a nice finisher and a thick hide to stack with wands. There are very few 'I win' forms against RBW's, but this should have done well with wands.

Hummingbird is less than impressive, but so was wasp so I feel your pain. The one benefit is the scouting and how easy it is to get away. Few other classes can easily say that.

Vanguard is actually quite good if sometimes hard to notice, if you ever play a Nexun again have a ranger ambush you without vanguard then with vanguard and you will notice the difference.

The bond is a cool idea that I would trade for another power in a heartbeat. It is just too unreliable to have it and even if you do you may not play like your bondmate.

Anyways, everyone seems to think Nexus powers are fine so don't expect to be paid much attention to.


In general, I did like Bofin though.

Just wanted to throw that out there.

I've done 3 Nexus shifters. They certainly aren't as easy as Trib Gnome shifter or Human Scion shifter, so there is a slight learning curve.

Wolverine is an awesome form. Did you know the lashback affect cancels out lag like orc masochism (allowing you to rake again if needed)?

Good luck with your next.

Sounds like a fair combo to me.

Wolverine is a great form. Hummingbird is also a good form.

You need to develop ability to adjust. To say that the forms are weak is wrong.

As someone who played a nexun and utilized with the bond ability, it is is super powerful. Mostly for the non-mage you are working with that you can speak to while scouting the airs. That is something no one else can do.

I think you didnt give it a long or fair enough shot.

Damnit. You had studly forms and I liked running with you.

Sorry man,

This was my first attempt at a mage, in fact the first mage I brought above level 30. I learned quite a bit by playing this shifter unfortunately the biggest lesson I learned was:

I hate playing shape shifters.

I hated not being able to talk

I hated feeling like a completely innefective warrior/orc with LESS options in combat.

I just did not have fun playing this character, I found it hard to identify with a gnome, and even harder to identify with the mage archetype.

That said, I did enjoy running around with you quite a bit as well!

Take care dude.

I felt bad for you and Tinwold because you two heroed up when the village was in full swing and Brun/Olthundor and Urg weren't even in the 40s. You guys had some tough fights that didn't go your way. I figured you would come back once the Island got stronger and we would fight again. alas, it was not meant to be


You do know you can talk to your groupmate while bonded though?

Yeah,

Olthundor taught me that one. It is useful when bonded but the thing is with an air form, obviously scouting is key. Relaying scouting through the bond is awesome, but landing next to your warrior friend and being at 60% or so hp, from his HP boost is kinda bleh. The mechanic of having to be in the same room for all bond bonuses detracts from its value I think

The hp boost for the mage is great when it lasts, but far too often one of you seem to step out of the room during battle for whatever reason and having healed or slept to get that hp up to it's max it's pretty weak to suddenly lose the whole benefit for the mage. It happens way too quick given the limited upside of the other nexus perks.

The bond seems to benefit the warrior side of things a lot more than the mage side. Stoneskin, haste, etc, depending on your bondmate that can be kept even after breaking the bond.

I've been thinking a little about bond mechanics and think it would be cool if it got better/stronger the more you bonded with someone. Increased skills and more power given to your closer friends in the cabal-- it is "bonding" afterall. If you join with a stranger it could be less than those you run around with all the time, not that we want some perma-groups promoted out of it but something like the way shifter form familiarity works might function well, with maybe a little more upside and more lasting hp bonuses for the magi.

The nexus powers can be truly powerful in the right hands but seem much more limited and niche than the other cabals that I've experienced.