With the smaller player base, is it still possible to see bad-ass AP's? I recently deleted my AP, reason being. It was hard to find players to kill, I guess I could have stayed at 36-37 and cleared out my range over and over for 200 hrs, but, where is the fun for those that are getting mowed down. I don't know if would help in anyway, maybe lowering the threshold for the next tier for ap controls? Maybe even something totally different..Would be awesome to see what others think of this and if it is even a problem.

and for very similar reasons that player numbers and larger lands = less kill opportunities for a solo AP. The group ganging AP has more chance but only slightly due to groups stealing kills.

Uber AP's can and still will happen but they are more closely related to luck than anything else. Easy or easier rod locations being the key one as the AP class, of all magic classes suffer most from lack of ABS as you increase in rank, which if you want souls, you need to.

I think lowering the control thresholds would be pretty good. Maybe even decreasing the chance of a 0 charge person would also be a good idea.

But AP's are as they always have been. I never fully understood the sitting at level 36 mentality since charges are in large part determined by PK records of your victim and there tends to be a higher concentration of high PK count chars at hero compared to 30-40.

We are just ending a relatively long stretch of fort powerhousedom which certainly made life rough for AP's, the pendulum seems to be swinging and chances are the next month or so will look better for them.

But how you achieve it will depend on play times.

Also on wand lovations.

Don't assume you have to get charges at 36. One of my aps (might even have been Victoria) went into hero range with no controls and did fine. Admittedly with easy barrier.

my last char was rolled specifically to kill aps that sat to build a weapon. Sadly there were none while I waited in that range.

Noviask was a pretty solid AP and getting charges was an absolute chore. Granted, I had a hard range of targets but...

A) Most people were worth 0 or 1 charge
B) I think at the height of a good time, I had at most 5-6 enemies I could hunt that wouldn't be multi-killing newbies.
C) Most "badasses" worth more charges were either worth 2-3 (like Tolgrumm) who were an absolute pain in the ass to kill or..
D) Unkillable combos. I'm sorry but there are just some absolute nutty combos nowadays and attempting to kill them with even full a/b/s was like slamming my face into a wall.

Ekaerok was absolutely untouchable for me alone. Full a/b/s/stone, I'd have to run in two rounds - and that was before he got insects. Even getting him slept, I couldn't land a single curse/blind on him *at all* in like 300 mana. Uber saves, god gear, and it mattered little that I even had him slept. He could charge me at the Imperial Inners and force me to flee almost immediately fully prepped.

Was he probably worth 10 charges? Sure. Could I kill him solo? Absolutely without a doubt, no.

Everyone else that was remotely easier to kill either was worth 0-1, and some of those being risks (like the rager I lost my last weapon to....full a/b/s, died to some lucky deathblows and permalag... guy was worth maybe 1 charge if he hadn't died recently and I lost 20+ charges there). Normally I avoid ragers as an AP but I needed people to actually kill.

Unless it's perfect timing of a hero range, you're playing a huge advantage char (aka not imperial felar ap), can find a/b/s easily (was stuck with limited wands), or you gang you will not get a lot of charges like the old days.

Hell I remember on Keshuk having a field day getting charges. Noviask was an absolute chore. In 200+ hours more, and a lot of that was hero, I just couldn't get the numbers or the opportunities to do it.

I don't think it'll happen these days. I do know if I ever try it again, I'm not doing an Imperial or Tribunal...there's just not enough targets.

you were spending 300 mana to blind and curse him?

plague that m'fer, drop at least one sword, slow him, summon to a good spot, and go to town on him.

CF isn't so procedural that you can always do 1 or 2 things in a set order and win.

all this is negated if he was a hand spec too. oof

Incognito is better than you.

I think it was just your build dude, if I took him to 150hp entirely with passive damage and no stone skin, landing blind on the first attempt, maybe it was just 17str/int screwing you over.

I too struggled to land spells on slept foes as a felar.

As a drow it was much easier.

1. There are many more ways to be rewarded now. I think a lot of ppl would rather try to get a third legacy, or a quest form, or a three virtue paladin and get an uber char that way than go through the stress of trying to build a 5 control AP.

2. APs feel like such a roll of the dice between wand locations (I think AP can get screwed worse here than any other wands using class just based on their ability to solo so many things) and wild swing in char makeup (feats or famine in PK) it often just doesn't seem worth the risk.

Just about a year and a half ago Cabasko and Fjodir were both running around. Now, I wouldn't count Cabasko as an uber AP, but he had almost 150 charges, and Fjodir's weapon had a +90 DR, and almost 900 HP, so that's pretty good.

I don't think the game's really changed all that much in the past two years.

They show up periodically, but just like there isn't always a Lich, there isn't always a top AP.

And yeah, it's harder to pull off now. Moreso than ever, but that doesn't mean that there won't be another one by the end of the year.