There was going to be fairly balanced fight between outlanders and imperials with the outlanders holding the codex. Then the empire brought nexus with them (I'm sure the balance said we were tipping), and what would have been an interesting extended fight turned into an ass raping. So what started as an interesting challenging fight became ridiculously lopsided i.e. NOT BALANCED. I think the idea of nexus is interesting, but with every character I've ever had it's never worked out properly in practice.

So we have this back story for a lot of Thera that hinges on a conflict between order magic and chaos magic. How about refocusing nexus farther away from caring about alignment and more on ethos/magic.

I would like to see nexus also have more of an RP angel to it like scion where the goal is along the lines of expanding magical knowledge instead of killing people who are in higher numbers.

I won't dispute nexuns change fight dynamics, especially if there is more than one of them awake. But nexuns don't fight balanced. The bond puts nexuns in pairs. That does not mean they come across a single villager one sits out however. It's about the outcome and goal of restoring overall balance, not the means. Nexuns are sort of the bad guys because they do anything.

So they may raid, restore the codex, see balance restored, and not press to the inners with the imperials. Or just leave the imperials there out to dry. I think the thing is nexuns constantly have to gauge balance to know what is called for. Since it does shift all the time. And if you don't, sometimes you can end up doing the wrong thing.

You also have to look at other instances. Take the example of 4/5 hero imperials are on. And one fort hero. Empire holds the orb. They know he's not coming, cause he goes alone he is toast. But if he has 2 or three nexuns, he will come and you might still have that interesting fight.

If you see five nexuns all running around I think they are sort of a deterrent, that's true. But if you're the underpowered side, you love nexuns. They make you able to do things, instead of worrying about getting beat down. And lots of times I think it's the weak side calling the nexuns for help, not the nexuns calling them.

Just thoughts. A better understanding of what shifts the balance ad such might help with nexuns. And I mean for all players in general, including people playing nexuns.

It's honestly just too hard to be perfect with your affecting the balance/veil and everyone EXPECTS you to be perfect.

Not to mention you kinda have to be reasonably good to play a successful Nexun, and I suck.

Has been the lack of powers, aside from the bond and some really weak ass complicated dam redux. Even as a Nexan character, I bonded maybe 5-10 times over the span of hundreds of hours. The bond is really only good for times when there are two of you on, against a lot of enemies. The more Nexans on, the less likely they are to use the bond, because it limits the ability to all group together. This just encourages the gang mentality. You really get no bonus as a single member of the cabal, if they aren't any other level appropriate Nexans around. As any other cabal, you have a range of abilities to use. As a Nexan, you are ENTIRELY reliant on other people for use of your cabal power.

Eye is just a time saver as I see it. Gauge is the same. Just powers to allow you to know what you should be doing.

Vanguard is fairly useful, solo or in a group. Since as a nexun you're only fighting (or supposed to be) people that tip the balance. If you have vanguard and say dark and order are both tipping heavy, go fight an imperial with vanguard up (or any mob for that matter). You'll be amazed at how much it does. (I saw what are Eviscerates go to maims on mob attacks in that situation.) But that would be say tier 4 vanguard, and that is rare. I would agree normally maybe only one thing is tipping 1 degree, so you get tier 1 vanguard which is not as useful as the bond.

As to the bond, if there are four nexuns and two of them are mages, I'd argue two bonded pairs might be better than a group of four depending on who you are fighting and the state of the balance. Nexun powers seem to be far more situationally useful than other cabal powers, because most of other powers are just always kept on where as nexuns choose between vanguard and bonding.

I went into a few apparently suicidal situations with my nexan ranger (e.g. attacking a group of 4 imperial leaders at the huntress) and vanguard made it survivable.

Since sometimes I've been that guy who can't retrieve because there are so many fort characters with heal that I can't kill the outer.

However, I have also been the lone guy on against multiple enemies and for some reason the balance is still causing nexus to side with them, or is balanced so they don't feel the need to side with anyone.

I really don't have a problem with nexus as long as they don't do cheap stuff like turn on you without warning.

They will help the other side retrieve and that's it. The Outlanders could have gone to sit at their inner if Nexus makes the odds to be against them. The only ones coming past that point will be Imperials. If the Balance is tipping heavily, you probably have the numbers to stop both Nexus and Empire from attacking you or at least make the fight a tough one.

I kind of think that pushing nexus towards a cabal balance away from a ethos/align balance might not be a bad thing. I kinda don't like that evil tips with 6 imperials 1 evil outlander and 1 evil trib and the enticement from the 3 man nexus group is to go after the lone outlander or trib (who may also be getting hunted by the 6 imperials, the whole go after the weakest part of the dominating force.)

of course figuring out which cabal needs help at any given time is highly subjective and I am not sure how it would work.