Time to throw away 47 hours, 28 levels and 196400 experience.

Well, not bad I'd say for being new. I went the dumb route and picked probably the hardest thing ever to start with: dark-elf conjurer. I was cocky, I knew it....but man was that a mistake. I had some help (wiki/qhcf-search is awesome) and some real nice friends in the game (Nuloh, Malicorzip, Tragnor, and the others who let me tag along, thanks), but I just don't know enough I guess to handle this. Arakyth got me last, but I really felt bad dying to Vassten. Seriously, I brought everything I had to the table...an Imp with both familiar edges, a strong demon, a strong elemental, aura, flight...and I got flat out raped. My demon lasted 2 freaking rounds (it hit you for injure, I was shocked), my imp lasted 2 rounds (really wish you could see their health, it's SO risky using him as it is already...and why can't Imps grin or snicker? Give them full emotes), and then I lasted one round. Earlier I-something paladin, literally put me at 2% hp in one round - I magic missiled him, and 3 DEVAS from a paladin strike combo and I was running like a little girl. An Imm tried convincing me that it's possible but I'm just not seeing it.

Now I can finally understand why my buddy says I'm an idiot for picking the conjurer - after 25 levels of complete uselessness, I was expecting demons to rock and had seen Kanaev's tear people apart. And I get them aaand...nothing. I die 3-4 times to mors-gravis gone mad (how do you make these guys happy! Challegha are easy)...Guess I just don't know enough.

Oh and sorry Lady Eshval, I probably really pissed you off - I wasn't aware it was rude to talk to a god and level at the same time. Then I died trying to find a beautiful place to talk to you from since you wouldn't answer after I left...Arcibu showed me your shrine though later, looked cool.

For everyone that enjoyed my guy, hope ya did - it was a swift kick in the nuts to show how little I know By the way, the Mansion of Twilight and Coven woods outside Galadon are both really neat places to explore...the rest weren't really that memorable. I'm still mad I couldn't open those two doors though in the Mansion...sooo many keys in that place.

-Torak and Spike (I'm going to miss roleplaying with an Imp, it was a lot of fun)

edit: Oh, and for others, those two familiar edges are awesome - my Imp tanked the Maran guard completely til his death (just elemental and I), would constantly tank while leveling (could handle half the monastery before resting), and killed three people solo (22 elf invoker, heh sorry but it was fun).

I'm not sure how an assassin 2 rounded a strong demon. In general, as a rank 28 conjurer, the idea is to let the demon tank. It takes some timing and planning, but once you get the swing of it you'll find that evil conjurers are probably one of the meanest combos in the game and downright brutal/overpowered at rank 28.

That being said, drow makes for a very, very bad evil conjurer. The problem being you rely on your demons and elementals doing melee damage. Warrior classes 5+ ranks above you will easily outtank your servitors.

Try a human next time and see if its easier. I consider drow a finesse/elitist choice. I personally don't think I could (or would want to try) pull one off half as well as I could a human.

The assassin didn't 2 round a demon, but he did tank my demon/elem for about 15 rounds of spamming trip on me...

The paladin did 2 round a demon, that was even higher level than him (few lucky blows to me, same level). The demon auto-attacked, he striked it with his paladin combo (3 ***) and it died on the next round of 4-5 attacks (seemed like a double round) where the demon got one "injure" in.

You can do what Kanaev does, but not without a lot of protections. What you usually don't see in logs is how much prepping is going on. A highly skilled hero mage has at least a/b/s/protection and probably stoneskin. That makes them much tougher to kill. Without those things a mage can be dead in 4 rounds. Unless you know a/b/s sources you have to treat your drow mage like he's made of glass.

I thought aura/flight was pretty good for a level 28 dark-elf...

>I thought aura/flight was pretty good for a level 28
>dark-elf...

Having aura is good, and better than most new players will do, but it's not enough to make a drow survivable at those levels. As a drow, you're really a lot more fragile than a normal mage. You have terrible hitpoints, and an easily exploited vuln. The small amount of protection that aura provides won't even compensate for mithril vuln and lack of hit points.

If you want to be able to stand up to a strong melee class at those levels, you really need shield and stonekin, at least. You can use some tactics (like flee and return) to make up for it if you don't have them, but it's not easy. As a drow, you're going to die very quickly if you're being targetted.

The following is just my opinion and lots of people (many more knowledgeable than I) will disagree, but warriors are way better than mages at those levels, for most skill levels. A highly skilled mage can pull all kinds of nifty tricks (including protections) that swing the balance back, but it takes a great deal more skill than winning with a warrior. In fact, until you really reach elite ability, a warrior is going to beat a mage below level 35, if the players have equal skill. That's a very general statement, and there are exceptions, but on the whole it has seemed true to me from both sides. As a warrior I consider mages easy pickings and as a mage I run from any warrior nearby.

Which is not a bad thing...we all were at one time. CF has a bunch of helpfiles on interacting with immortals that would be a boon to you in the future.

I am pleased you found the shrine *glare Arcibu*, and I tried to be as 'polite' as rp possible. Chooing Scion is a rough path to follow when combined with your race/class/newbieness.

If you have the will to stick with trying class/race combinations, you will do fine. It will all come together eventually.

Good luck.

Eshval's email
BlackMarquessa@gmail.com

Eshval's slightly off-center (unofficial) blog.
http://blackmarquessa.blogspot.com/
Carnivàle
http://cirquecarnivale.wordpress.com/

Play an assassin, might make things a tad better...come back eh and dont conji in wiiiiiiidddeeeeee open areas.

Ya, wasn't smart...I was too stunned from the paladin beating and should have ran. Soon as you attacked, I didn't even have demon bound - but I bound him for some reason (shouldn't have, he was already attacking you from the blindness dust). After the death I was like...bleh, eh just forget it.