I believe I've made a comment to this effect in years past, but watching some PKs recently has lead me to believe that many players are either in ignorance of it or respectfully disagree. That said:

As you probably know, there are many command delay/denial, or "lagging" attacks in the game that delay your opponent's next action.

As a general rule, it is only beneficial to use these skills/spells/communes/powers/etc. in a one-on-one fight if you believe that if both you and your opponent player were to get up and walk away from your computers and enter no further commands, you would win the fight. Otherwise, you're probably just lagging yourself while your opponent beats you down.

That is all.

In addition to reiterating this:

>As you probably know, there are many command delay/denial, or
>"lagging" attacks in the game that delay your opponent's next
>action.
>
>As a general rule, it is only beneficial to use these
>skills/spells/communes/powers/etc. in a one-on-one fight if
>you believe that if both you and your opponent player were to
>get up and walk away from your computers and enter no further
>commands, you would win the fight. Otherwise, you're probably
>just lagging yourself while your opponent beats you down.

I'd also like to additionally point out that Pebble to Boulder still works the same as it always has. Specifically, no matter what, if you cast Pebble at an opponent that does not have command denial coming from some other source, e.g. massive ganging, they will always ALWAYS ALWAYS get the next command before you do. Unless you think you can melee someone down in two rounds, a lone invoker casting Pebble ain't preventing anyone from doing ####.

Thank you. I know this post comes off as jackassed arrogant but it kills me to see some of you poor kids systematically making the same major tactical error.

I was suspecting that the pebble tactic you described was the reason you said that pebble was a huge practical joke you've played to the invoker class.

I've confronted the lone invoker using pebble tactic before, and in such incident I've gained my first PK win (flee, return and manacles after the invoker lagged himself with pebble) from an invoker in Hero range(with a cold vuln shifter form, cobra). It's true that manacles, special guards and a lowbie closing a certain door had something to do with the invoker dying there, but I still think that pebble was a weak opening against a cold vuln flying shifter that relied on manacles and meleeing the invoker to death with his bite and his special guards.

I agree that a lone invoker doing pebble is generally a mistake, if he does not outmelee his opponent, as invokers tend to have more damaging spells in their arsenal.

I haven't played an invoker, nor does my PK prowess reach that of Nepenthe(though it doesn't matter, since we are agreeing with each other now), but when I see a lone invoker doing pebble against me, I'm relieved that he lagged himself and didn't use one of the dangerous spells.

I mean, don't get me wrong. It's an important part of the invoker arsenal. There are definitely times when it is THE right spell.

But watching a lot of people play invoker with it is a lot like watching a golfer who will only use his sand wedge for every shot.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

As Reggie, I landed a kill with pebble. :) That was fun, and he couldn't believe it.

granted, I rarely used pebble.

Aaron

Disclaimer: I really liked Reggie.

>granted, I rarely used pebble.

I'm remembering back five months here, but I believe that watching Reggie madly spam pebble at an (in my opinion) inappropriate target was the inspiration for the original post of this thread.

He got a lot better about it later in life.

and I sucked at it for awhile. Then I got all tactical and stuff...and it helped that I Figured out five shields works with barrier :)

Thanks for the disclaimer, I love constructive criticism.

Aaron

Exeption #1:

When you want to be tricky, start off the fight lagging, because many people react differently to a foe who is trying to lag them, than a foe who is trying to do other things to you.

Then, mid fight. pull out your maladicts/spells/damage/ etc....

I've found many people (myself included, I learned this tactic when it was employed on me) react too slow to recover and realize that the entire flavor of the pk has changed.

I didn't want to overcomplicate the thread, but one situation I used lag for was my orc. I'd bash people to start a fight, and that way they were usually still lagged 2 rounds later and couldn't prevent me from fleeing if I needed to (e.g. if I just discovered they were a maran paladin with a light-based attack and counterstrike).

.. you'll be telling us that there are times when wielding two axes is not optimal. And I won't believe you then either! More läg! More Äxe!

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

As I recall someone complaining in Dios about the lag of tanks these days. But what I am currently doing for it?

Faiting vit Äx in bouth händs tu coos moor läg! Muahhah!

P.S. How do I make it red, Valg? Care to give me an example in text format so I can see the code?

Highlight his post. Instead of hitting reply...hit the button next to it labled "reply with quote"


In the "message" box, you will see what he typed, to get the red effect.

I think I got it now. Hadn't used that button before