Ryzom

ghyselsj wrote:At 100 DA (Defensive Affliction) you get nothing (pwned!).

Correction: At lvl 100 DA you get the double heal plan (heal+heal)

That's assuming you didn't ge it from 100 heal first... I don't know how many people that group includes, but I was one of them

ghyselsj wrote:No, DoTs can only be used on their own or with a drect nuke attached. Root/DoT would be a little overpowered, no?

DoTs are only inefficient since they are essentially elemental spells. They're fun to use and better in certain curcumstances, but to grind levels, straight nukes are faster. That's all I meant by it.

Rocci is essentially correct, though there are certain specific circumstances where DoT is _very_ useful.

But frankly its no good for Ele leveling or even hunting unless you lack healers. (It is slightly more efficient if you can hold the link long enough). I'm 250 Ele, and I am only picking them up after, using spare skillpoints from other branches.

The best use I have found (thanks to my beloved Nillian for showing me) is that DoT are less aggro-dragging than single or doublenukes. This means if a mob is attacking another mob (eg a carnivore attacking a herby) you can help the herby win with a DoT spell, without dragging the carnivore onto yourself as much. Also because they are slightly more efficient (only consuming Sap instead of the full credit cost once link established) you can do better in low/no healer teams.

Oh and the little link bubble over your head looks really cool for them

wow lot's of theory there for you absorb

just like to add that going out with a duo is fun and effective with afflictions, and because there arent 5 others nuking the hell out of said mob you tend to land a bit more often.. just make sure you level heal as well so u can top up your friendly tank/elementalist

ucci28 wrote:Just so you know, I know I'm choosing a more difficult path for myself, that's what I go for- status effects tend to be the thing I find most fun/interesting in an RPG, and the two things I hate more than anything else in games like this is
1.) hanging around waiting for a party of strangers to accept me, and
2.) Being told by uber-leet players that I'm wearing the 'wrong' armor, raising the 'wrong' skills, and all the other things I need to do to maximize my damage/hour or whatever. Advice is nice, telling me I'm playing the wrong kind of character sucks.

You're right in your assumption that it's difficult to keep afflictions as your highest skill solo or in 2 - 3 homin teams, but you shouldn't worry about running into the two situations you hate.

The best thing about Ryzom is the ability to form a team with most any combination of homin and gain skills at a decent clip. Everyone may not get to work the skill they would most prefer to work on, but there are things to kill at any level with most any combination of skills. There's no, "we're saving room for a class X" or "we really need a second healer before we can fight." It's not uncommon for 2-3 homin teams to grind without anyone gaining experience in healing skills because everyone can heal everyone after the fight.

Ryzom also isn't the sort of game that attracts or panders to the leet min-maxers. The best gear is something everyone wants but it isn't essential outside high level duels.

And one piece of advice for traveling solo - enchant your weapon with madness. It can save your life when you get jumped by a torbak and you persuade it to chew it's own leg off instead of yours. Pulling carnivores with madness will get you some solo OA exp, but most all the time you'll get more exp in melee or elemental.

Don't let anyone tell you you're playing your character wrong...unless you follow the Karavan.

I dont know if this would be out of line with your play style or concept for your character but I also prefer to solo or work in small groups.

What I do is keep my melee weapon equipped, cast which ever spell type I want to use or which ever branch I want to level up, as my mob pull..then slice and dice as it comes at me.

That way, I'll get a portion of the xp to my magic branch and the rest to my stick, stab, slice or smash branch.

are all afflictions link based? If so doesn't that really reduce the number of afflictions anyone could use, or onc eyou cast the spell doesn't that basically take you out of the rest of the fight?

Well jeez. I keep hearing people say that the commuity here is extra-great, and I've just had it proven to me.

My ideal team is a group of people I know in real life, and who are sitting in the same room networked with me so we can talk back and forth to each other. EDIT: The most important thing about my teammates is that they are no more experienced with the game than me- so we all learn together, and I don't get drug by the nose from quest to quest, from max-xp area to max-xp area, without time to stop and gaze at the scenery (one of my many habits that can annoy strangers. Do I get xp for taking screenshots? )
That invariably means I play with like 1-2 other people. Once in a while I team with others, but I'm always a nervous nellie about it. I come from Anarchy Online, where mix-maxing (or twinking, as it's called there) is a way of life, so partying with a stranger is really just a way to embarras yourself if you don't have a sugar-daddy giving you all the gear and credits you need. So that may account for my anti-social partying methods.
I know, defeats the purpose of an MMO- but I like seeing other people run around, I like the long play time, and I love to role-play once I understnd the world.

So, I guess the next thing I have to learn about is enchanting weapons with spells. The idea of making a weapon cast fear or madness or whatever when I hit with it seems right up my alley indeed.

yoshi21 wrote:are all afflictions link based? If so doesn't that really reduce the number of afflictions anyone could use, or onc eyou cast the spell doesn't that basically take you out of the rest of the fight?

Yes and no. It takes you out of the fight in the sense that you cant do anything else without breaking your link. But you stay in the fight cause the mob you're linking on is effectively put at a disadvantage by you. This is especially the case with DA. If you stun a Mob the entire fight, you wont hear anyone complaining about you not casting

yoshi21 wrote:are all afflictions link based? If so doesn't that really reduce the number of afflictions anyone could use, or onc eyou cast the spell doesn't that basically take you out of the rest of the fight?

Links don't always (infact rarely) last the whole fight - unless you're way above the level of the mob you're working on (or just plain lucky) you'll be casting quite often enough

ucci28 wrote: So, I guess the next thing I have to learn about is enchanting weapons with spells. The idea of making a weapon cast fear or madness or whatever when I hit with it seems right up my alley indeed.

Unfortunatley it doesn't work like this
Enchantments work by a use enchant button on the bar, much like casting a spell. The item must be charged using sap crystals to facilitate this.


Im sure you ill figure the ins and outs of it all just fine