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I created this character trying to answer a question that had been rolling around in my brain for a long while, is life’s champion a true counter to necro, and a goal that had been bothering me ever since Baer said my last Sunwarden almost received a tattoo of going back and getting it. Necro is particularly good against most classes I enjoy (and most classes in general), so I was curious if there was something capable of being a necro hunter. It turns out it is incredibly well suited to it. I had some lofty goals set for myself that went from the more simple of two paths/leader/tattoo to two I couldn’t manage to last long enough to accomplish. I wanted Purifier, but there just wasn’t anyone who would give me fights to finish it out (I understand why, many had no shot). I knew it was likely impossible, but a third path was a distant goal that I just lost the drive to keep going in hopes of.
People
Baerinika
After my last Baer follower, I thought I had figured it out. I then made this one and realized I had not figured it out at all. Then I kept pushing and I think I finally did figure it out? It was fun.
Fortress
This character was around a lot of great Fortress people over the time. I think I saw a very different view than enemies did of most of them. I didn’t really ever not like someone and my memory isn’t great.
Travanz/Dhuuston/Nithenoel - You were all incredibly memorable to me and generally lifted my spirits greatly. You were inspiring enough that my next Fortress will be focused on being a Scribe not a Squire (Though not anytime soon).
Talanashta - What was an oddly cold relationship at first really warmed up in time to end up being a relatively fun partnership.
Village
We had an odd relationship where there were times we got along great and times we absolutely did not, which is what I would expect. The character absolutely didn’t pretend to be dumb about the motivations of the cabals, so she got that you were after mages as much as she expected you to get she was after evil. This went as expected in 99% of cases except two I can recall. One where a drow kept wanting to attack the Tara’bal with no mages inside then run and hide by the Destructor. I’m not dumb enough to let stsf charge in a norecall room if I can help it. The other was when I was messing with an engagement between Battle and my enemies by attacking my enemies and they began to try to focus on me.. instead of the mages there or that fled/returned. I think that might have been a timing issue or pride issue, but felt odd to me..
Outlander
I worked relatively closely with a few of you, but the cabal got really quiet at the end.
Empire
Neshamar - You were a terror. Many thought I had the tools to fight you, and to some degree I did until your last weapon really got built and you were then hitting me through Aura/Sanc/Protection/Resist Lightning for caps damage and landing almost every single hit. I could not pray worth anything against you, and you could land spells relatively well against me. As much as I am sure progging aspect of war would have made the battles closer, they would have led to me dying a lot for an ability that flat just didn’t work for me like it did others. I expect no one else will consider it a win, but the fact I never died to you and I got one assist on you is a win in my book even if they don’t.
Merigan - This was the most fascinating one because you were an absolute terror to me pre-hero. You consistently had 6-8 levels on me and landed your prayers when I could do nothing. I then hit hero, took edges, finished my practice, and just absolutely destroyed you. I thought you were classy all around though.
The rest - I don’t have a ton of nice things to say or just flat little experience with 99% of you. I actually saw Wereridith try to retrieve with me awake but otherwise if Neshamar was not awake you were likely elsewhere.
Scion
Ixen - Shocker, at the top it is the same person again. I was sure when you finally were gone I no longer had to worry about the stress of dealing with your A-P’s being a terror but that didn’t hold up. You were part of some of my few deaths, specifically getting me in Trothon within like three minutes of logging in and pinning me there pre hero. After that, I turned off eyes to try to stop from getting wanted and Iskrith got me asleep and you helped clean up. After that, I was careful and close and felt like I had you on the ropes in Seantryn one time but couldn’t finish it.
Mechanics (Levels taken from website)
Shaman
This is my second shaman. My first was Zydeki and pretty much got told yeah you have the perfect paths (Desolations/Venoms) that's why you did well. I was pretty annoyed by it honestly. I found through this character that my first shaman had skipped some prayers that were worth using, geared wrong, and missed some edges that they should have taken. I learned through good coaching from my imm that the class's base kit is absurdly strong.
Life’s Champion
23 Lifebind - This seems to stop vamp touch and do rot like damage to the undead. I don’t see a lot of point in having this at 23, but it is what it is. You spam it up in the Mausoleum then forget about it until later.
31 Searing Ward - This is amazingly powerful against an undead, but is a challenge to use. You put down a ward in a single location with a long cooldown and if the first hit against them goes off they are getting hit VERY hard and seemingly getting lagged a lot as well. It was near a death sentence unless they just don’t let the hit go off and run away. This combined with Lifebind is a powerful solution against the undead. I think it may lag non-undead as well, but it does not hit nearly as often nor as hard so it isn’t going to likely keep them there.
32 Soul Citadel - This prayer proves to me that sleep is the keystone ability of CF. A prayer designed to stop it costs 200 mana and lasts for 2 hours (3 ticks) in game. I had to sleep to recover the mana to try to keep it up. All of this and guess what, it doesn’t even work all the time. Healers apparently get edges to make it better that are unavailable to shamans. It should either be expensive and short in duration and be fully protective or make it longer lasting for cheaper with mixed effectiveness. I’d rather just see this ability removed from the path and something better given, than pretend it is an answer to sleep.
37 Vivimantic Aura - This was juiced and it is substantial. While the minor bit of healing or damage mitigation it will occasionally give are pretty mediocre, it appears to give pretty substantial DR against the undead which made me just not worry about an undead’s army. It also provides an additional resistance that made me as a storm giant even harder to hit through resistances.
47 Luminous Assault - This is amazing and hard to use. It drops a VERY strong attack that appears to be light-based for 100 mana and a long cooldown of 4 hours (5 ticks). It also seems to blind sometimes as well, I think if the person cries out. This gave it both a use to disrupt enemies at the beginning or to drop big bombs at the end to finish fights. The tough part was that this is not targeted, I don’t know how many times I prayed this just after someone fled.
The path’s strengths far outweighed its flaws and I really enjoyed it despite my gripes on soul citadel and limitations of searing ward.
War
21 Martial Faith - This was interesting because it is probably what I got 99% of my usage out of the path out of. I received War second and this made me sometimes try to hit more and seemingly land more hits I took. Those were great. Slice bleed was mediocre but there and okay for mobs. You give up a lot of defense to use a polearm. Lash was useless for me, I don’t know what stat it cares about but I didn’t have it as I wouldn’t land 50% of my lashes. As this is where I saw most of my value, in hindsight it probably wasn’t worth the path.
27 Spectral Weapon - Multiple people have told Ishuli this isn’t worth it but it doesn’t seem to be heard so I will try one more time. I mastered it. I tried it against PK. I tried it against mobs. Oddity - You have to see your opponent to specify a type which is unfortunate. First problem is that this is something > 1 round lag and less than 2. We can call it 1.5 but I just don’t know. What do you get for using it less often than most of your default abilities? You get less damage than dispel evil and torment (I assume dispel good as well) that are one round lag. So you get cool affects right? The affects are okay but seem to be saved against or just fail about 50% against mobs and more against pks. So they are at least super powerful right? You get hammer for minor pulse lag, javelin for minor bleed (4-5 hours iirc), and axe that I can’t recall what it did because it was that uninspiring. I would just torment better than this in 99.9% of scenarios. The only time I would want to use this is to bleed out a VERY tough mob fight AFTER I sliced it then go back to an ability that actually works.
30 Courage - I think this did more than I could see, but was really unsure. I do wish it had been a bit better against demon/devil (whichever one does fear) but I guess it can’t completely nerf their summon.
35 Razor Chain - A great tool to discourage air shifter. Downside, air shifters just stop fighting you.
40 Aspect of War - This was a massive mixed bag. Yes, you are hasted and get extra accelerated hits against your opponent. You heal and get a nice hit/dam/buff etc. What I was hoping to gain was some form of cutoff. I think it also must have been based on a stat I did not have, because I think I maybe got two and the person just fled the next time. This is also kind of challenging to use, the amount of times I entered aristeia after someone fled then was stuck with no word/fleeing without the haste was notable. If you like to leeroy jenkins, this is great. If you want to go drow for the synergy, also great. For me, this was a tool that I would use if I thought it could turn the battle while controlling the battlefield. The 200 mana from a pool of 1000 made it a bit challenging. I once cried to another fighting evil, used it, finished that person then an ally that was of the Light came and luckily struck my ally (not me). This situation or one similar with shove made me really careful on when I wanted to use this, as I didn’t want a goodie kill just because I used aristeia.
My tough review is maybe others love war, but I wish I had chosen differently on my second path as I was given the choice this time. I chose it because my mana pool was a real issue, but I think I would have rather chosen something else in hindsight. It did get me some kills I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
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