So I've been thinking. Is it just me or is there a distinct lack of orc players at any given time on the game? Is there a reason for this? I mean, besides the whole Orcs can only be Berserkers deal (which I don't see as a real problem or deterrent). Is it just that more appealing to play a straight up Fire Giant Warrior (or any kind of Warrior)? I'm looking from the thoughts and opinions of the playerbase and Imms here. Just want to know because I've been thinking of rolling up another Berserker and see if I can actually get past level 25 without deleting from not being able to RP/group with other orcs. I love the idea of a group of orcs doing stuff like busting into Akan past the guards or just rampaging through the country side.

PRO'S
Lots of HP
Decent Stength
Some Mob Protection in Home town.
EXP bonus when ranking with other orcs.
Adaptation.

CON'S
Wimpy set between 30%(?)-50% based on level
Many skills cause damage when used. Examples are..
Forced March
Fallback
Headbutt
Crushingassault (If succesful)
Bloodletting
BloodSteep
Grapple
Offhand grapple
Regurgitate

A couple skills require you to give up a dual wield slot. Examples are..
Headbutt
Pin
Warbanner (Although other orcs can benifit while dualwielding in it's presence)
Charge (If you want to get technical)
Rally Forces

A couple skills that are orc specific. Since there are no orcs or so few that you need them for allies, they are never used. Exaples are....
Steal
Demand Tribute
Squelch

A couple skills that are very specific in their application.
Blood letting
Hide

Spinebreaker lag is enough to make it your only command in put before a flee or death if you use them. Spinebreaker is very unreliable. I only use it if My death is imminent and I have no other way to escape.

I love the Orc role play, but playing them is a pain in the ass. When you execute your moves, you are often giving your opponents a free attack against you and moving closer to an Autowimp and a free parting shot from warriors who can just chase and murder as you auto wimp.

Oh, and Last stand hardly ever works and is easily parried.

Adapt looks cool as hell though.

Another thing is the skills don't seem to balance out appropriatly. Orcs have skills that are very weak in comparison to other classes (Cheap shot) or come oddly late (Steal) or are barely usefull until later (Hide).

Still there was some work done to them, so that's a start.

Adaptation could be cool but, most unfortunately, all the skills in adaptations are VERY unreliable. They basically look cool in help files but in practice hardly work.

Examples?
Let's have a look at Skrugga.

Cower - Hardly works if you have more then 50% hp. And when you DO have less, it is time for your wimpy to kick in.

Improved flee - Not all THAT bad, but in some areas it is VERY dangerous to flee through closed doors and too far. No way to disable it. So choose your poison.

Take cover - Never seen how it works. But I didnt fight mages all the much.

Staff defence - Never seen how it works. Fought quite a number of staff wielding mobs and warriors.

Dirty fighting - Looks like Imperial tactics on the first glance, but works much, much, much rarer. Eyegouge on flee sounds cool but fails most of the time (unreliable)

Same applies to all the other adaptations. Skills either have very minor effect or work once in a blue moon.

I think good step to improve orcs would be to make adaptations really matter. IMHO.

I would like to see any one of the following + shield block.

I would like to see their skills be much more reliable than they are. Perhaps a strait percentage other than a modified percentage.

A wider spectrum of use on someskills like steal and hide.

Immunity to but the carriers of disease. I.E. Looting an orcs corpse has it's own perils.

A form of adaptation early on, where in they can chose Str/Dex/Con as their primary atribute where they get +1 str or +3 dex -2str {And a size reduction) or +1 con. I would even suggest that this early choice is what leads to what adaptations are available.

Orcs need some love.

At Creation you chose your size.

Small/Medium/Large

Small = -2str +2 dex

Medium = Normal Orc stats

Large +1str -1 dex

Some Adaptations affect size; Skrugga = -1 size (Small being the smallest) with a -1 str +1 dex

Mamlauks +1 str +1con +1 size (Large being Max.)

That you haven't played all the adaptations, and are extrapolating from those you have played to form opinions on those you have not.

Orcs are relatively difficult to be successful at PK when you get to the 25+ range. I do not have knowledge of a lot of preps and don't use them a lot but I've always been of the thought that preps SHOULDN'T make the fight and there are still a lot of times that is true.

The thing that I had to really get over with my orcs that I played was that you either HAD the advantage in a fight, or DIDN'T HAVE the advantage, right from the get-go. It seemed if I thought about vulns and jumping a group when they were confused, or essentially using chaos and confusion and of course the best tactic (attacking an already injured group) to my distinct advantage, then my orc skills could really cause a lot of havoc and win me the fight. But yes, in a straight toe to toe fight with especially a warrior, you were meat unless you really had your crap together. Ie..you were prepped, and he/she wasnt. Or you exploited vulns etc .

As far as Orcs to group with are concerned. If other people don't see Orcs to group with, then there won't be Orcs to group with. If you get an orc up to 5 and then hang about, killing elfies or something in the Vale, I would bet dollars to donuts a couple more lowbie orcs will suddenly pop up and ask you to group. Orcs Breed Orcs....you just have to have the right/unright state of mind.

My two cents

Corrlaan

I have a level 40 orc, will probably delete it in spite of
fun rp and stuff. I do not like being plain meat for
so many classes. Yes, with some luck and a lot of preps
orc can probably beat warrior, but... warrior can beat orc 24/7.
I hoped for adaptations, but they are but slight (though nice)
modification, not really changing the multiple downsides,
like mentioned here limited recall, unability to hit a warrior
with anything but bash while soaking up all damage output warrior throws on you, horrid saves. But, of course, most of all - lack of other orcs
to group with. Warrior is much more versatile, with so many options to choose, while those who face orc know well what they face,
regardless of adaptation.

There are probably a lot of reasons for this, but from my own experience I found the lack of allies and large number of enemies to be daunting, you are right often the number of orcs on is relatively small so to rank you need to find non-orc's to group with which always felt harder then it should. Secondly, while orcs have many cool and unique abilities they do not always stack up very well against many other classes. So while my personal imperssion of an orc is a beastly warrior, they often need to take greater care when approaching pk then a stadard warrior and thus for me fall short of my expectations. I do enjoy the class though.

There are two reasons I will not play orcs.

1. I only have one option for recall.

2. There is only one hero allowed.

Oh yeah. Grinning Skull being the only hometown Orcs can have is a pain sometimes. I mean, I can see how it makes sense for orcs and all but that walk is killer at the lowbie levels. By the time you get out of there you're pretty much exhausted or close to and got to either Forced March or rest up. Unless you did some massive exploring pre-PK range to rack up extra movement points.

Someone else words, I have to make an eduacated guess to their hometown. An orc, if I see you quaff a recall, unless you also have teleports to quaff after recalling, I know exactly where to find you and can make a beeline to the village and finish you off (better yet, if I want to tool orcs, I set my hometown to Voralion and just word when you do). The lowbie moves are merely ephemera, solved by ranking.

1. Aggro mobs guard its gate
2. The orc can hide in its hometown like a thief can.

Hiding is the only advantage and is not much of an advantage at that. If an orc flees a pk, quaff's and then disappears it is no wonder where they are, they can't sneak so you just head to the village and wait for them to come out of hiding. Better yet grab a thief, assassin, or mage to draw them out since you know where they are. On the other hand if they teleport you'll know because they most likely won't be hidden. So the village works as a great way to trap an orc or track an orc down.

The aggro mobs help at the lower ranks but a lone warrior can get through them without much problem pre-hero and I'm pretty sure you can sneak past them if your a hiding class. If anything I think the village should have more and higher rank aggresive mobs wandering through out to make it more difficult to run to the village and chase down an orc. While no class/race deserves a safe place orcs seem to have enough difficulies already and their hometown shouldn't be an additional handicap.

Just my $0.02.

Had this happen to me on a previous Berserker I had. I'm in the village at Graag practicing some skills when a necromancer invis'd summons me straight out of the village in the middle of my practicing and well yeah. Everyone knows how necromancers operate after summoning. So all you really need is someone who can summon. As soon as the orc steps out of hiding then let the fun begin. Well. Fun for the other guys. Not the orc. Unless he's like really badass.

But if the orc has really explored the village he can find something neat about the villager that helps if someone breaks in to chase him. I won't go into details since I don't know if that's kosher or not. Discussing areas an all that.

Oh yeah. I did this just for the hell of it because I thought it would be fun and see if it would work. Play a shifter with an Air form. You can fly right into the village without having to worry about any aggro mobs. I'd do this then make my way to the Dark Altar so I could reach Tremblefist and just attack him. If it gets too dicy you can then fly out with no problems. Free hit and run.