I play a character that is different from everyone else. I dont like to do the same things over and over like all others. I personally find that a giant sword specialists who just bash's over and over is incredibly boring, and it's not just that. There is a great indifference in this game when it comes to specializations.

A giant who bash's over and over while wielding swords is going to straight own. That is why there are so many of them about. All storm giants who just bash, and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. You get bashed, and that's it. You die. These people are simplistic to me, or can't pk with any other character/specialists combo. It is to good. To pick a giant, and just bash is so freaking good it's pathetic. To being bashed over and over by any giant, or anyone of your same size while they wield swords is just lame. That is all the have to do. I fought a human sword specialists rank of 20 yesterday, and I"m a duergar rank of 20 flail of the hunt, and offhanded frostbrand sword in my hand. A hit and dam roll nearing 30/30. That is pretty good for my rank I'd say. I can't do anything to this human wielding these swords. I'm completely getting owned. I have no attacks, I have no strikes. I'm getting parried, and hit two times a round.

What is wrong with this? There is also a big problems with specializations too.

Polearms are not defensive. They absolutely suck. Defensive specialization does not even describe how much this specialization sucks.

Spears, Staffs, all come a distant last to swords. Swords is the ultimate specialization to just own someone with. Many consider it a utility specialization, but it owns. That is why there are so many of them about. All they have to do is bash, and they destroy anything. It's not even funny. That is until they get to hero, then there is a better chance for others to do well.

This is just not fun. I want something different to play. I want a weird specialization/race combo. I dont want to be like everyone else, but this is incredibly lame, and not fun at all.

There needs to be a great addition in my opinion added to the "defensive" specialization weapons. They just suck. Players know it. I know it. I've seen it first hand with my characters.

Things have been said, but things seem to fall on deaf ears around here. It's either swords, or daggers. These are the two you see all the time. Can we please do something so that we get a little more variety in the game?

These two combos are so over powered it's not funny. I love this game, but damnit if it doesn't get frustrating to get owned by someone who just types bash, !!!!!!!!!! and that is all there is to their wins. I did that. I was a giant sword specialist. It's just to easy, and I'm not the greatest pker.

I"m just asking for some simple things to change. If a giant is wearing heavy armor, and carrying 95% of his max weight, he shouldnt' have any chance to bash someone. He's got so much weight, but it's opposite. 10 rafts and he's bashing whatever he wants.

I'm sure this will get erased, or whatever, but I just wanted to say that. I try a duergar, and get owned even without them wielding weapons that really hurt me.

And yes, I do know that flails are offensive spec, but that still doesn't change anything. God, give me some diversity in the game. They know the powerful combos, and they're going to play it because it works, and everyone knows it.

Thanks

To the new player Q & A.

Preface them all by telling new players every post is wrong, and then go through a point by point in each post as to why every thing this guy says hasn't been the case in over, oh, ten years.

Then explain general non-prep methods to deal with each perceived imbalance, or how the RNG really does nudge the battle for or against you but only if you do everything you're 'supposed' to (and preface this fact with there are times you will lose anyway, and yes those times are frustrating as well).

Pretty much every post he's made so far has been DIRT KICK IS OVERPOWERED

From you, I got complaints about lash lash lash.

I guess I am doing something different.

Sword specs and dagger are nice. Nobody's doubting that. But they have their down sides. Sword specs can't maledict. Neither gives you any lag moves. Sword, and especially dagger, can be parried by a lot of different classes.

Bash is also nice. But it also has down sides. First of all, in order to kill someone by bashing you have to be able to out-melee them, or they need to already be wounded. Lots of times a sword spec can do that. Lots of times they can't. You also need to tote around a crapload of weight. When I played my giant, I found this pretty annoying. Then there's the fact that a lot of classes inherently get the ability to avoid or reduce the effectiveness of bash. Shamans, healers, necromancers, shifters, transmuters, invokers, shield paladins, dagger specs, druids, city ties thieves, any svirf or gnome who can reduce himself, etc.

If I'm a shaman, for instance, a giant sword spec generally doesn't worry me unless he's really decked. At least, he doesn't worry me as much as some other combos would.

Bottom line- the fact that sword and dagger are "better" (for PK) than the other specs (in some situations) isn't necessarily a bad thing. If there were some other spec that had nothing to offer over sword, then that would be a problem. But I don't think that's the case. Some of the other specs' skills are more "niche", but every spec offers at least something that sword (or dagger) lacks.

You're wrong. Next?

Ok. For the hell of it, I'm going to play devil's advocate. Sort of. Let me rephrase the rant to be: at certain levels, for certain combos, giants with bash make the game no fun.

Say, an elf invoker up to the point where they get shields. Sure, there's reduce and enlarge. But the giant has those at his disposal too. And woe to the guy who gets caught by surprise. I've always chalked this up to, "Warriors kind of get screwed by mages at the high levels, so this is their time to shine."

But...maybe it needn't be that way?

.

.

What else do you think shouldbe done?

Oh, I'm not saying I have a solution. Just pointing out that some seriously lopsided match ups *do* exist at various levels, for various combinations of class combos, that one could argue are "not much fun" for the guy on the losing end.

Most people don't have a problem with fighting someone who can beat them up and who they have little chance of killing, as long as engaging that person isn't like signing your own death warrant. That is arguably the case for lowbie giant warriors against most people who can't protect themselves from bash. (And for other match ups as well- we needn't limit this only to bash).

>Say, an elf invoker up to the point where they get shields.
>Sure, there's reduce and enlarge. But the giant has those at
>his disposal too. And woe to the guy who gets caught by
>surprise.

Well, yeah. There's no reason the giant should sneak up on you, but if they do, it's definitely a fight where you'll be hoping to survive rather than win.

>I've always chalked this up to, "Warriors kind of
>get screwed by mages at the high levels, so this is their time
>to shine."

I think generally that fight is advantage: giant; however, I would argue that most (not all) of that is that people who play invokers are generally trying to power level through those levels vs. try to PK.

Typically in that situation, as the invoker, a missed bash on me will end up with a dead warrior -- give me three rounds to pour out damage while you can't flee and have to just take it, and the warrior will run out of hit points before their next command.

The main trick, then, is making sure you don't run out of hit points first (hp gear, decent parrying weapon, etc.) and that you're setting up a situation in which a missed bash becomes likely (grease, etc.)

>Well, yeah. There's no reason the giant should sneak up on
>you, but if they do, it's definitely a fight where you'll be
>hoping to survive rather than win.

People say this, but given the amount of ranking you have to do, an activity which focuses your concentration elsewhere, including time spent sleeping, it seems unreasonable to say that no opponent you can see on "who" should ever get the jump on you. But it should be fairly rare.

>Typically in that situation, as the invoker, a missed bash on
>me will end up with a dead warrior -- give me three rounds to
>pour out damage while you can't flee and have to just take it,
>and the warrior will run out of hit points before their next
>command.

Okay...I'm sure you've pulled out some crazy wins with low-ranking mages, but this seems like a stretch. First of all, in order to blow the giant away during the three rounds he's lagged, you're going to need two spells. That implies that, when he starts bashing you, you don't immediately enter "flee" or "c wo". You're probably also going to need a giant with an elemental vuln that he has neglected to cover. So, an overconfident giant.

And if you don't manage to kill him in those 3 rounds, here comes the next bash, and probably a dead you.

>
>Okay...I'm sure you've pulled out some crazy wins with
>low-ranking mages, but this seems like a stretch.

I've run about a 90% success rate in match-ups of this kind with this strategy, FWIW. It works better than it should precisely because almost anyone playing a giant warrior looks at an invoker as a free kill in those levels, and they don't approach the fight the way they need to to win.

>First of
>all, in order to blow the giant away during the three rounds
>he's lagged, you're going to need two spells. That implies
>that, when he starts bashing you, you don't immediately enter
>"flee" or "c wo".

Well, right. I'm probably going to make the giant come to me; I may even make him chase me to run him low on move (possibly something that doesn't matter, but then again it might) or lead him into an area of my choosing. I can almost always get away with this because, see above, perception of free kill.

When we finally get into the same room, though, I'm going to initiate the fight. Probably with grease, but also potentially with a wand/scroll, wind wall, pure damage, or something else depending on the circumstances and level.

Grease is so, so, so underrated as a poor man's bash shield.

Obviously a 30+ giant warrior can beat this with dash/bash, but I've never seen this actually come out in the midlevels vs. an invoker.

>You're probably also going to need a giant
>with an elemental vuln that he has neglected to cover.
>So, an overconfident giant.

You really only get that in the case of fires who don't cover cold. In the low-mid levels (although not high) that's a pretty good bet, but... it's an even better bet that a storm giant won't have covered cold (for example).

Typically it can be done in the three rounds even without a vuln. Sometimes it can even be done to Battle, although there the fight skews differently since you know they won't have reduce/enlarge. Rarely, someone will come at you with enough saves and DR that this is not possible; in those cases, yes, sometimes you'll die.

How often your giants die to invokers at middle ranks?
I'm asking because my never do :)

Rarely, and usually as part of a gang.

But that being said, a lot of good players make giants, but there's almost no one who tries to go on a murder spree with a lowbie mage. By playing a giant, I'm guaranteed to not run up against myself playing a mage, so I'm pretty safe. :)

I mean, sure, a lowbie invoker can nail some newbies at middle ranks. But in general, he is at loss (I don't consider gangs).
Bash is great at low/middle ranks because fights are usually short (no wands, low hp, poor gear) and that's quite possible to die to one or two bashes even if you are a melee class (and most mages will die to it too).
I would probably put my money on my giant fighting against my invoker at middle ranks. I'm wierd like that }(.

Grease is so, so, so underrated as a poor man's bash shield.

Obviously a 30+ giant warrior can beat this with dash/bash, but I've never seen this actually come out in the midlevels vs. an invoker.

There's also the high-risk version of self-Grease, with the assumption that invoker won't rely on keeping much in hand.

I remember when we were drawing these up, and we talked about how something like Protective Shield (100% immunity, shortened lag for trying) is not necessarily better than something that merely applied a significant penalty to success. Drawing someone into a poor gamble on Bash not only frees you up, but gives you three rounds to dump those handy one-round invoker spells while your opponent can't flee.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Kuroda tells (victor) 'BASH< BASH BASH EVERY####ING TIME IT"S A BASH'
Kuroda tells (victor) 'roll a regular ####ing character, you scrub'

You'd think after thirteen trips to the Realm of the Dead, you'd get the hint. But as of now, you're on the short path to a short stay here at CF.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

While you are at it, please post hyperlinks of all these other people, other than yourself, saying these things.

Edit - okay, I got really bored. Looking back on your game balance proclammations, I almost have to think you are intentionally trying to be wrong - The funnyone files:

A giant who bash's over and over while wielding swords is going to straight own

Polearms are not defensive. They absolutely suck.

Spears, Staffs, all come a distant last to swords.

Spamming Trip, and ganging - I'm tired of scrubs just doing this over and over

I'm just about to delete my character. My duergar is just about to hero ranks, and I can't believe how much damage I'm taking from paladins, and anyone with "those" weapons

I like my necromancer, but I dont like the whole fact of my pk is based on if I get the sleep or not

Is playing a Conjurer suppose to be this hard?

A shaman and his rot

Noone should be able to out melee a warrior.

(assassinate) It's just to powerful, and easy to do. These one skill deaths are just to powerful for CF and makes playing not fun at all.

One of the biggest problems with paladins, or one of the biggest problems is "sealing the kill." It is so easy to just flee from a paladin, and run away. (how's the duergar doing in the running away department by the way?)

I just wanted to know why assassins cannot hide right after they've attacked someone,

Ok, right now I have a dagger specialists who isn't to old, but I just keep getting my arse kicked by this dwarf warrior.
(I just gotta know, is he wielding swords, or *gasp* being different?)

I honestly dont know why you dont see this, but this is BS. Something needs to give. There needs to be a magi cabal again which helps out the magi vs ragers. You give all this stuff to the ragers and there is no opposite cabal to fight them.

Spellbane Makes Magi worthless?"

"Cheap Shot" WHy does this skill not hit any?