Thu Feb 10 10:14:28 2011

At 12 o'clock PM, Day of Freedom, 11th of the Month of the Dark Shades
on the Theran calendar Harich perished, never to return.

Race:	human
Class:	transmuter
Level:	51
Alignment:	Neutral
Ethos:	Neutral
Cabal:	NEXUS, Nexus, Seekers of Balance
Age:	65
Hours:	324

So I broke down and got my first mage past level 22. Found my black sleek in one of the eight places I know, and kept myself in shields and the occasional aura using limited sources. No problems there.

My role was to fight villagers almost exclusively, and I found it really frustrating, as only one in four of my spells did not get spellbaned. Spelling up would drop my mana to about 750, so I couldn't waste those mana-sucking muter spells only to be inflicting damage on myself. Despite exploring all over, my total movement on Harich was far lower than I'm used to, and that created strategic problems, too. My biggest gripe was having to prepare for EVERY fight--even if I came upon someone at gushing wounds, I had darn well better go off in a corner and put up a few spells on myself. Oops, where the heck did they go? Playing a transmuter was like commanding a submarine, and although I like the freedom of movement, I hated having to swivel my periscope about looking for specific people.

I am in awe at what I have seen Mharl pull off. Even wanded up, I certainly couldn't have gone solo after someone into the Destructor. Is this just the nature of delf versus human malleability, of a good despoil and better gear? No idea. I certainly liked transmuter utility, however.

In the end, I felt like I was dead weight and a gear whore, so I said my goodbye.

Allysia-I love traveling with a bard, and your solid presence is an anchor for the cabal. Good job.

My dead Imperial friend and my dear departed anathema--I really enjoyed watching what you could do with even a few of my spells. You ate up the opposition quite often, and I missed you both when you died. When I could no longer be your quickening b**** I felt lost and absolutely, completely ineffectual.

Being flat most of the time, I interacted with almost no one else. Just a little boring.

Bis spaeter.

Dark-elf Chancellor Scion Trannie is about 1000000000 times better than random mook Human Trannie.

If that makes you feel any better, there it is.

Harich was a pretty good guy to have around I always thought. Wish you had gotten into Nexus a little sooner. Might have gotten a little more travel time with you in my pre-hero days but we saw a few places and I'm usually up for tagging along anywhere if it means making other nexuns have an easier time.

Overall thought he was a good char. Impressed that was your first hero mage actually.

Could always use another mage in the island if you're inclined to try a different class.

See you in the fields.

You should certainly be able to take out gushing people without wanding up. Did you consider just going for raw damage from the start? Disrupt organ worked for me in those situations (assuming you're not fighting a rager).

If someone was hurt, the first spells I would use were typically disrupt bone or neuro.

Tactically, what hurt me most was that I would go flat most of the time trying to get a surprise or avoid a bad situation. Going flat after wanding up eats up 120 mana a pop, and that put me in a world of hurt from a mana pov.

On the other hand, not going flat meant risking getting seriously messed up by a trapper. At least getting caught in a ranger snare would leave me with a chance to evade a bearcharge or enjoy that occasional missed ambush, and in both cases I'd have the opportunity to inflict some damage too. I'm a bit concerned that Flaaayin's success with creating traps may cause cabalwars to go down the toilet, for I certainly became much more inclined to play conservatively regarding raids and retrievals with a trapper around.

It will be interesting to see how everything works out in the future.

Neuro isn't great if you aren't wanded up. Disrupt bone isn't great if they aren't maladicted prior to it (although it's not awful). Disrupt organ can still be nasty as hell, and the special effects can finish someone off even if the raw initial damage doesn't. You are highly likely to get one of:
- asphixiation
- bleeding
- ko (in which case you disrupt them again)

I imagine it is a combination of:
- letting the nightwalker do some of the tanking
- using a staff and having very good defensive spin (largely because of dex)
- despoil
- massive dam redux