I might as well throw in my 2 cents about what could be better. Phoenix brand is nice against mobs yes, but a complete waste in pk and I'm sure I've tried it in pk as much as anyone. It misses about half the time, and the other half it brands the wrong vuln of what you're using. So 1 out of 4 tries it helps you and with 2 round lag that's not a good ratio. Guess I'm only complaining because sigil of pain seems to be oh so much better. BUt I guess it's supposed to be better.
The rest of the powers are pimp, though it'd be nice if cry of deliverance worked when trying to cry to shifters when they're in form.
Anyway, just wanted to throw that out there. Not like I'll ever play a Fortie again anyway

Yeah, I think with phoenix brand the only thing I'd change is its mana consumption. I seem recall it being ungodly high in mana costs for its failure rate. I could be wrong though, it may have been tweaked in the last 2 years.

We've actually discussed how a lot of the Maran powers do nothing for mages. We've never actually gotten to the point of doing anything with it though!

I've noticed the same with many of my mages.

I've always felt that mages got enough from the cabal. Invoker get a long ass fly and shifters get a berserk in form. Marans in my opinion were meant to be straight up warriors. Eyes of flame are really sweet for shifters. Brand can be super nice for invokers. Just my two cents. Of course I feel there are enough Maran without giving them something new to attract people.

In my mind, ideally, we would tweak phoenix brand slightly for everyone then come up with some replacement to lightforge for mage classes, and leave the rest alone (not talking about Acolyte powers here). We certainly do not need a general increase in power to your standard Maran, but I think creating opportunities for more diversity would be good.

And since you mentioned it, there are significantly more Imperials then there are Acolytes and Maran combined, let alone just Maran. Also, on average, there is a mich higher rate of skilled pkers amongst the evil ranks then there are amongst the goodie ranks.

How about giving mages a spell called lightchannel.

In essence I could see t having two affects, the first affect is that it works exactly like a touch spell and turns hand to hand attacks into searing light attacks. The second affect could be that the mage channels the power of the light into them and randomly get free fire blast attacks. More or less the spell would do the exact same thing as lightforge weapons except it would be placed right on the mage.

Its more or less the same gain a warrior would get and its still useful for any mage class to deal a little extra damage. PLus I think it would be cool to see a lion or ram with searing light attacks.

> PLus I think it would be cool to see a lion or ram with
>searing light attacks.

That said, I'm not sure why you'd ever play anything else.

after having my vulture/lion with acidic bite attacks instead of claws on the lion I understand the power. That said a lion with despoil and a nightwalker is still about twice as powerful as one that can exploit a vuln on orcs and duergar. Besides whats wrong with making maran shifters better at killing evil races i mean thats why the warriors get to make searing light weapons...

The last thing we need is dwarf hand specs with full pwent, ferocity from a tat, frenzy from a prep, zeal, and berserk pummeling with searing light hands.....

Not a new thing for warriors. That's why they can lightforge.

<<<And since you mentioned it, there are significantly more Imperials then there are Acolytes and Maran combined, let alone just Maran. Also, on average, there is a mich higher rate of skilled pkers amongst the evil ranks then there are amongst the goodie ranks.>>>

Most of the Russians play Empire, which contributes a lot to their numbers. Empire doesn't require any real interaction to prosper. Take oath, make donations, don't ####up and bam you are likely an elite.

I won't argue that there are more skilled players that are evil. I'd say I see a lot more of the skilled one in Scion though, which is the smallest cabal.

Goodies on the other hand can all flock to one cabal and even those goodies not in the cabal still flock to one side. The evils not in the cabal usually pick a side to back. Throw in that the evil cabals fight each other. Marans fight well... Evil.

And to think when I said this like a year ago, everyone mocked and belittled me .

Can't wait to see what you come up with though.

I think the best way to 'fix' Maran in general is to not be so stingy with the promotions on people who aren't heros and, if you have no intention of 'maraning' someone, just boot them.

What basically it boils down to is the maran powers may as well all be at level 51, and, likewise, the 'least sturdy' people in the game have the least powers, yet still have nasty enemies. Woe is the guy who has to clean up the corpses left behind a group of squires throwing themselves at a group of sect leader imperials with nothing but their balls and 'protection from evil'.

You know, I think you may actually have a point.

I dug through my logs and while I'm sure others have a different experience, I found that my fastest time from induction to Maran was roughly twice as long as my slowest time from bloodoath to sect leader.

Granted, part of that is my play times, but if you're, say, a squire paladin or shaman, you effectively have all the responsibilities of cabal membership with no powers.

I was going to post the exact observation. But I was worried you would totally disagree with me. Hehehe Now Im happy.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. With my posting frequency, its just a matter of time before I hit the money on something or other.

that you will code sometime? Or is it low on your priorities?

Maybe lightforging clawguards for forms would work. A lightstriking lion would not be much diference than any warrior sword/axe spec dual wielding light weapons. Except that the shifter still wouldnt dodge or parry as well.

An idea I have for mage powers would be some kind of flamestrike attack in lieu of the rest of the powers, (lightforge, phoenix eyes) A holy flame attack. Havent really given it much thought though.

One power I dont like is Phoenix cry. I can see its advantage mind you for ganging down people, but it seems more of an acolyte power. Someone is fighting, heck I better go rescue them. It just seems so gangish to be able to rush to every fight someone is off having. Two sides to this I know.

Lightforge claws and teeth guards for shifters!! Hip Hip Hooray. Hehe