returntopk - Tumblr blog

[returntopk]

Sooo, saves

About that formula.In the move, in the madness of school and work... I lost it.

[returntopk]

Other thing

I'm neck-deep in school work at the moment, but I think I figured out saves... mathematically. With a graph. I haven't tested my equation yet but if it works out then I will be able to make some educated guesses on good gearing and a bunch of other things.

Updates as they occur.

[returntopk]

The Importance of Gaining a Round

On PKiller the other day, Nizaris made an off-handed comment about the importance of 'knowing what to do to gain a round'. I've seen similar comments made before, especially from Kam (whom I used to question on all things liche/PK endlessly -- a generous fellow, that one).

Kam said something along the lines of: being good at PK comes down to reacting appropriately to every round. You can't spam spells to win, because you need to respond quickly and properly to each move your opponent makes.

Both Kam (in the past) and Nizaris (recently) used the example of wither to make their point. If someone casts wither on you, for many people the immediate inclination is to cancel it. But if you cancel it right away, you lose a round. If, instead, you land a wither on your opponent, then you BOTH have to spend a round cancelling wither, and you're not left one round down.

How do you get good at this? Let me say up front, I never have been. I've been a planner rather than an intuitive responder. I have my strategy, I know its limits, I hope for the best. I think most of us are, and that's why we get this rippling of shared tactics that everyone clings to for a month or so before moving on to the next.

But that approach is brittle, and unsatisfying.

So, with my disclaimer offered, let me tell you what I *think* would translate into this action/reaction prowess. It's what I intend to spend my time on.

Knowing the mechanics of each skill and spell is important. That means using them in various situations, and using them frequently, so you can make observations about what, specifically, they do. You can then form theories on how, specifically, they work, and then begin testing to see how well your theories stack up to contrived prodding.

This, I think, would mean you were not beholden to the Pool of Conventional Knowledge on Lensmoor. You would instead be beholden only to your personal ability to observe and think.

[returntopk]

How I'd test vuln_fire limits

In general, if you're resistant to something, you take ~75% damage from that type. And if you're vuln to something, you take ~125% damage. So without testing it, I am pretty certain that one res_fire item will equalise my vuln. But if I wanted to test that, this is how I'd go about it:

Find opponent with flaming weapon/breath attack (player or mob).

Fight it n times with 0 cloak. Record each round's HP drop. Average. Make some rough calculations of expected results for 1 and 2 res items.

Fight it n times with 1 cloak. Record each round's HP drop. Average.

Fight it n times with 2 cloaks. Record each round's HP drop. Average.

Compare averages -- against each other, and against expected results.

Profit.

Pls advise if you see flaws here -- logical or otherwise.

[returntopk]

To cover:

the choices i’ve already made/why

a look at my assumptions about entage

how i would/should test my fire vuln

[returntopk]

Look at that who list!

who lens [DEM] Sudeva [ 91] Minky [ 91] Grumdar [ 91] Qaz [ 91] Jurlon [ 91] Caspia [ 91] Marthe [ 91] Sharde [ 91] Rhacziin [ 91] Amne [AFK] Xanter [ 91] Lantric [ 91] Xexo [ 91] Necetra [ 91] Karythar *[ 90] Sujin [ 89] Imogen [ 85] Deican *[ 85] Azhei [AFK] Annya [ 85] Gan [ 85] Zyeri [AFK] Zaeralm [ 69] Kaliya [ 63] Nerrin [ 36] Isliel [ 36] Veradis [ 30] Azengard [ 22] Marek [ 16] Mylia [ 16] Lhina [AFK] Puth [ 15] Sira [ 15] Calvin [ 14] Trent [ 14] Graken [ 11] Tyriegn [ 11] Cirinde [ 9] Vihtori [ 4] Feryn [ 2] Skyler [ 2] Dohven [ 2] Cagle [ 2] Huo [ 1] Darby [ 1] Lasok [AFK] Roselyn [ 1] Sera Players found: 48/58

[returntopk]

Stuff for today

Pretty basic, y'all. 

Trying to combat cap woes and fit in all the skills/spells I want from 14/15.

Disarm! Blindness! Feign death! Some psis! 

Also went for a run through Cleric's Tower to see how I'd fare against the Ms there. Good stuff. Sold the gear for cash. Gotta find some good lowbie cash cows.

Idle thought: a) Must set-up path to Master Healer from Tome center (4s3wnwsese - done), forgot how useful he can be. b) Photosynthesis does not stack for ents, apparently. c) I wonder if one res fire item (currently, a cloak) is enough to cancel out my fire vuln, or if it is more than a 25% vuln.

[returntopk]

Wondering

I think this would be a lot more fun if I could get some other people involved from day dot. Like, what if everyone who has a spare lowbie -- premort or remort, whatever -- decided to log off their end-game mains to spend some time grouping up and hunting big mobs at level 20, or hanging in the BF trying to jump each other again and again. And what if no one was pushing for a hard and fast rise to 91, but instead smashing each level properly, learning all the areas in the range, having some luls with gust of wind, generally goofing off.

Surely there's no pride attached to a throwaway lowbie, so people could kick around for fun instead of OMGBESTEVERPOWER? Right?

[returntopk]

The Character

So I have a few characters, but I figure I'll start my little experiment with a focus on just one of them. Makes it easier to measure and track my shitness.

Introducing: Atropa.

Name: Atropa  Level:  15  Sex: female  Race: ent (Remort) Size: large  Specialize: weaponmaster  Clan: Forsai Your birthday is the Day of Play, 17th of the Month of the Badger, Year 354. Str: 26 (30)  Hit:    100%   Pracs:    26 Int: 21 (21)  Mana:   100%   Trains:    1 Wis: 22 (22)  Tired:  100%   Align:   good Dex: 18 (21)  Will:   100%   Morale:  100% Con: 27 (29)  Armor:  P:10  B:10  S:10  M:10 G:0 Cha:  9 ( 9)  Saves:  5  Save Mod: 0 Exp for level: 10000    Exp total: 150000 Base HP: 288  Base Mana: 243 Platinum: 0  Gold: 0  Silver: 70  Bank: 9034   Weight Carried: 94/625  Items Carried: 53/80 Age:  22 (168 hours)  Hometown: City of Tome Kills: 2112   Deaths: 7     Wimpy: 0% Player Kills: 0      Player Deaths: 0     Quest Points: 5031   Solo Quest difficulty: 2.4

One of the reasons I think Atropa will be a good choice is because lots of people have told me how mechanically sucky a rebirth ent becomes after level 20 or so, whereas my other character races are generally considered to rule (liche, knaeli, etc). Atropa has some big strengths and some obvious weaknesses (permslow, vuln fire), which means my skill (or lack thereof) will be apparent.

So, what's to come? Well, I need to spar some people and get a feel for my current understanding of this level and its tactics. From there, I guess I will figure out what my questions are RE: this character build. And from there I will figure out how to answer them.

Broadly, however, I will be thinking about my offensive VS defensive dynamic and trying to get a beat on the best gear around.

My current intention is to remain WM until level 30 or so, then re-spec -- probably psi.

[returntopk]

Hello

It's been a long time since I actually PKed someone on Lensmoor. It's been a long time since I engaged with the game like I did back when I got my hands dirty. And, really, it's been a long time since I logged on and did anything other than mindless questing or idling, at all.

But tonight I went for a quick stomp with some clannies to kill a mob. Just one. We messed around for awhile and everyone had to log after the kill was done but the encounter was long enough to remind me of the FUN to be had on this game. And the fact that generally it comes from doing things other than mindless questing or idling.

So I decided to try and remember how to play Lensmoor.. properly. How to explore, how to experiment, how to build a character, how to PK, how to learn things from sparring, whatever. And I decided I'd try to keep a blog about it (misgivings due to my blog commitment issues) in case anyone else was interested in remembering those things, or learning them for the first time. Which brings us to now.

And, sidebar, yes: I realise this takes something already incredibly nerdy to a whole new plane of nerdiness. Meta-nerdiness, where I am somehow commenting on what amounts to 'being good at gaming'. But the fact is I am not anymore, and I really wanna be, so I have to figure out how.

Do join in. This will be most fun if other people contribute when they see me sucking hard at something. All help will be posted.