Fighting and Combat — Imperian's Forums

Diabolist Behaviours - Update!

Valethar — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 07:43:26 +0000

Hello players!

We are currently looking to update the various behaviours for the Diabolist class. Currently they refer to "daegger stab" but given that Diabolist (even using the KILL command) use trace fire/ice, we are searching for any descriptions for those two abilities, as well as for magick and lightning. You will have until 8am GMT on the 16th of November to submit your ideas in this thread.

The possible 'themes' for attacks are: drunken, volcanic, frosty, lightning, poised, water, simple, gory, forestal, poisonous, brutal, etheral and tornado. You can see examples of those themes via this command: behaviour type _basic look .

If you have any questions, you may ask them here, or in the #diabolist channel on our discord.

Listed below are how the fire, ice, lightning and magick attacks currently appear. Note that any suggestions must include a message for the caster, target, and witnesses, using the syntaxes displayed below.

Note:

for references to gender $him, $he, $his are replaced with the gender-appropriate words for the caster, while $lhim, $lhis, $lhe are replaced with gender-appropriate words for the target.
If you wish to refernce the caster's daegger, you may use $daegger.

Fire

caster: You sketch the Sae-uxa symbol in the air, and flames leap up around $(target$).
target: $(caster$) sketches a symbol in the air, and flames suddenly leap up around you.
witness: $(caster$) sketches a symbol in the air, and flames suddenly leap up around $(target$).

Ice

caster: You sketch the Sae-edi symbol in the air, and $(ptarget$) skin turns blue from extreme cold.
target: $(caster$) sketches a symbol in the air, and you feel your strength sapped away by extreme cold.
witness: $(caster$) sketches a symbol in the air, and $(ptarget$) skin turns blue from extreme cold.

Lightning

caster: You sketch the Sae-tel symbol in the air, and electricity starts crackling around $(target$).
target: $(caster$) sketches a symbol in the air, and electricity starts crackling around you.
witness: $(caster$) sketches a symbol in the air, and electricity starts crackling around $(target$).

Magic

caster: You sketch the Sae-ino symbol in the air, and a stream of raw magick slams into $(target$), causing $(lhim$) to double over in pain.
target: $(caster$) sketches a symbol in the air, and a stream of raw magick slams into you, causing you to double over in pain.
witness: $(caster$) sketches a symbol in the air, and a stream of raw magick slams into $(target$), causing $(lhim$) to double over in pain.

Can someone explain the counter play here?

Xzerizenabel — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 13:28:09 +0000

Not really sure what I can do to not die to this, note I'm about 20 off of Max Hp. Aside from that the only affliction I have is intoxicating that I got from hitting him.

Health:471 Mana:335 (e-) k

Khalil leaps from the shadows and plunges a sitara into your unsuspecting back!
You are confused as to the effects of the toxin.
Your head stops spinning as the effect of the intoxicating venom wears off.
You are too stunned to be able to do anything.
Health:327 Mana:335 (e-) k
You are too stunned to be able to do anything.
Health:327 Mana:335 (e-)
You are again able to use a warchant.
Health:327 Mana:335 (e-) k
You are too stunned to be able to do anything.
Health:327 Mana:335 (e-)
An elusive spider frantically flounders about in the water.
Khalil takes a drink from a chestnut vial.
Health:327 Mana:335 (e-)
You have recovered balance.
Health:327 Mana:335 (eb) k
You are too stunned to be able to do anything.
Health:327 Mana:335 (eb) k
Your face feels as though it is on fire, as a rabid ghoul bites your cheek off.
You are too stunned to be able to do anything.
Health:282 Mana:335 (eb) k

A slight chill runs down your spine as Khalil's eyes flash brightly, staring around in an unblinking
gaze. Muscles rippling and quivering, he sinks into a strange stance, knife held out in a gesture of
defiance.
Khalil whips his arm downwards and looses a long dart, piercing your body and pinning you to the
ground.
Khalil's knife leaves a curving vision trail as it speeds into you, cutting a ravaged swath through
your flesh.
A prickly, stinging sensation spreads through your body.
Khalil's knife leaves a curving vision trail as it speeds into you, cutting a ravaged swath through
your flesh.
Khalil's knife leaves a curving vision trail as it speeds into you, cutting a ravaged swath through
your flesh.
The final blow is too much for you, and you fall to the floor a broken, bloody mess.
You have been slain by Khalil.

The issue with the state of raids, and raid objectives

Medivh — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 20:33:06 +0000

As it stands right now, there is no negative reason when it comes to organization credits, to let all your raid objectives be captured. while there are negative effects of having them captured, they are all things that can be lived with, if you want to win the almighty credit more than you care about a little whining from NPCs.

As most of the negative effects are mitigated in other ways (see: tutor being in caanae for everyone to use), the biggest, and most recent raids were performed for the sake of getting points towards winning the orgcredit race. considering how big of a deal credits are in IRE games in general, this has lead to cities letting all their stuff go, so that they cannot be raided, and lets them raid on off hours to win orgcredits.

Part of this issue is that raids are worth way too many orgcredit points, but not having your own objectives also has no downside, effectively allowing a magick who refuses to fight and still win credits solely on being able to raid an easy objective over and over, while controlling caravan vision (which is another problem that really needs to be addressed soon).

To make matters worse, raiding an organization gives the defender points for failing, which really doesn't make sense, but could be mitigated. I propose that not having your own raiding objectives starts having a negative drain on orgcredit points, or if that is not feasible for some reason, it should give the city who has the objective captured enough orgcredit points that the city missing the objectives would have no way of winning orgcredits without getting their objectives back.

This is something that needs to be done soon, because it was very meta/gamey what has happened in the past couple of weeks. either way it should not be possible to sow up orgcredits this way, as the way it is going now completely takes the competition out of orgcredits, and makes it both unfun to look at and a sure way to make sure an organization gets plenty of power creep.

I would mention the RP issues with Celidon raiding Kinsarmar and viceversa as the same group but RP nowadays does not seem to be worth of any consideration when it comes to the implementation of changes/penalties/powers.

Owned

Zoroaster — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 01:55:50 +0000

Hp:100; Mp:92; (db --) [Septus: Fishing.]
Azefel secures his previously wielded items and instantly draws a strong broadsword into his left hand, with a strong broadsword flowing into the right.
With a lightning-quick motion, Azefel slashes you with a strong broadsword.
As Azefel attacks, the swirling iceshroud seeps into his lungs, causing him to cough violently.
Your hearing is suddenly restored.
Azefel viciously slashes you with a strong broadsword!
As Azefel attacks, the swirling iceshroud seeps into his lungs, causing him to cough violently.
A prickly, stinging sensation spreads through your body.
Azefel dashes at you, leaps into the air and strikes you in the chest before falling to the ground himself.
You have been slain by Azefel.
You have nothing that can be stored in the Rift.
As Azefel attacks, the swirling iceshroud seeps into his lungs, causing him to cough violently.

(Ring): Vivianne says, "[BATS]: Zoroaster has been killed!"

...

I have my health displayed as a percentage, so... ouch.

Profession Discussion Thread

Ryse — Mon, 13 May 2019 17:42:37 +0000

We haven't had one of these in a while, and new player questions inevitably circle back to "What profession is best?" The help files are old, many players avoid the forums, and many threads are rather contentious. As a new player to any game, the first thing I do is check forums/wikis to get a feel for the various character options before creating a character, and a reasonably updated class discussion thread communicates this clearly.

So...what profession is "The Best"?

(One squid's opinion after six months of play, both PvE and PvP. Designed for newcomers with questions. Skip below for actual class discussion)

DISCLAIMER: Some classes are rather strong right now, others aren't, and a smallish player base means not every class is represented consistently. IRE also includes a system of "Artifacts" that inflate and confuse balance, as artifacts are items/gear that provide bonuses across the board as well as unique, class-specific abilities. Two level 101 characters of the same class may have WILDLY different power levels due to artifacts...and not just because of skill, but because of pure raw mechanical advantage.

For example, a "Flail of Ravening Hunger" (level 3 artifact flail) provides a +20% damage bonus, and "Gauntlets of Avaysu" (level 3 strength artifact) provides +3 strength, which is about 18ish damage. So "Bob the level 101 Fighter" with no artifacts might do 100 damage, while "Billy the level 101 Fighter" with ALL the artifacts might do 140 damage. 
Artifacts are gained via credits, which are earned by playing the game, completing events, selling promo items, or via direct purchase. Yes, it's "Pay 2 Win", but play long enough and you'll catch up. 

Also, Imperian heavily benefits from coding/scripting ability. To many of us, this is a good thing, as we jumped into Imperian to teach ourselves basic coding/scripting in a live, entertaining environment. While not required, scripting/coding will save your hands from carpal tunnel and react far faster than a human can in-game. For example, in group combat someone may script "Ryse enters the room! Kill Ryse", then four other people script "Target: Ryse" on that message...and suddenly Ryse the Squid is focus-fired instantly by everyone. This is far more efficient than staring at a screen, waiting for a small "Ryse walks into the room" message, manually typing "Set Target Ryse", and "Fire Laser at Ryse".

So if someone encounters X class/player and is instantly destroyed...it may not be the class, but the player's amount of artifacts, skill in coding, experience playing, or a combination. There are several players who use "mechanically subpar" classes and succeed due to coding/scripting ability and artifact ownership.
Also, classes change and evolve via the CLASSLEAD system. When you see "CLASSLEAD", think "SUGGESTIONS/NERFS/IMPROVEMENTS on Classes from the Playerbase". 

/DISCLAIMER


I have personal experience with two classes - Diabolist and Defiler. I currently main Defiler, so I'll start there.

Defiler - "I'm Captain Planet, Bi$ch!"

Summary: Defiler is an excellent class. An "Evil Druid", the Defiler wears medium-heavy armor, uses a shield, wields a flail, and simultaneously clubs people in the head while hurting their self-esteem via various "torment" abilities while its evil tree buddy screams at people. I'm not kidding, the powers are usually psychic damage and are flavored as "Whispers horrible things" and "Makes blood run from your eyes". It's edgy, emo, quite silly, and generally a "derp class" that can be setup quickly and contribute to group combat easily. It probably needs a few tweaks for balance, as it currently can do a bit TOO much...

...but for some reason, NO ONE PLAYS DEFILER! Probably because, to be frank, it's pretty straight forward and boring. Defiler is the "Max Strength Full Plate Greatsword" of Demonic (yes, more than Deathknight)...hit people, build up "entropy" (a Defiler resource), then use "entropy" for stuff. Tanky, high damage, but once you learn to survive the big damage burst...that's it. Defiler is also a terrible, horrible, cry into your treant awful PvE class. Your treant can't attack mobs, you can't yell at mobs...all you have is a slow, medium damage flail hit that registers as a single-line. Ryse is level 108 with an artifact value of 4000, and it still takes me about 20 minutes to clear Redwood Cottons of weevils.

Pros
+ Good defensive potential (lots of shadowbinding defenses)
+ High burst damage (bellow ALL THE THINGS)
+ Utility (you can project past walls, entangle, rain area toxins)
+ Excellent in PvP with minimal required complication (spam ravage/entropy then bellow at 100% - there, I created your offense for you)

Cons
- Horrible PvE. I wouldn't recommend a Defiler until you have a scepter (an artifact hunting stick)
- Uses weapon attacks, so you'll need to figure out rebounding/shields (a non-issue with more caster-y classes)
- Kinda boring. Straight-forward. Not terribly complicated.
- Slow hits

...

Diabolist - "I'm like really into tattoos and demons and darkness"

(Disclaimer - I was a terrible Diabolist, and it was my first class. YMMV)

Summary: Diabolist is in a weird place right now. An "Evil Priest", the Diabolist is a dexterity based utility caster with a lot of fun bells and whistles but a very slow build-up. They are light-medium armored clergy-types that ride a giant snake demon, summon complicated ghost-pets, and carve rituals to cast ticking time-bombs on enemies. They just OOZE flavor, their utility is amazing (they can teleport, wall, obscure, track, spy, fly), and they have VERY impressive damage after a slow build-up. They fight by combining two different ritual "sketches" every 2s, triggering wraith abilities off-bal when conditions are met, and detonating rituals into big, repeating damage over time bursts. They are also AMAZING in PvE...built right, they attack twice every 2s with high-crit while inflicting burning and shivering while self-healing health/mana and passively aff-curing. I bashed to aspect on Diabolist.

...but, as mentioned before, Diabolist is in a weird place. It's relatively squishy, but has a very slow melee build up to do it's thing...so you often die while trying to do your "shtick". There's no real escape abilities, making it difficult to maximize the "hit and run" design of a slow build squishy class. Their insta-kill is reliant on low mana, but there's no ability to actually damage or drain mana. While Diabolist can inflict some affs, the affs aren't terribly disabling/hindering and high burst classes can power through them. 

I can hear the complaints now..."But @Mathiaus uses Diabolist and he kills me all the time!". Refer back to my previous disclaimer statement - Mat has played for over a decade, is a professional programmer, and has tons of artifacts. His skill is less "because of Diabolist" and more "in spite of Diabolist". He also likes to play complex, underdog classes.

Pros
+ Complex, rich, and satisfying when you pull off the BIG BOOM of a Sun Moon Repetition.
+ Great utility. Everyone loves having a Diabolist in a group. Teleport, heals, buffs...they can even cure out of paralysis, and have passive aff curing.
+ AMAZING PvE. Very fun, very satisfying, with a lot of abilities usable against mobs.
+ So much flavor. The king of Flavor-Town.  

Cons
- Fairly squishy for a melee only class
- Slow buildup
- Lack of evasions
- No synergy with abilities and instakill

...

Those are the only two classes I have any experience with, so I'd like to hear additional breakdowns from other players. In addition, this information could be useful for new or transitioning players as well.



Berzerker Shatter Combo
Mathiaus — Tue, 24 Dec 2019 19:27:04 +0000
Warchant release pierce/shatter combo is super strong, especially in group situations where reaching the threshold takes mere seconds. I recommend that we don't allow shatter to be combo'd with other high damaging abilities. One example that relates to this situation of choosing 'either or' is summoner when they made whispering madness no longer capable of being used as an instant invoke with enlightenment following right after.

What are your guys thoughts? Is it fine as is, or should the zerker be forced to choose between high damage or instant kill, or shall they be able to keep their super effective combo?


Classleads 2019
Galt — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 12:02:20 +0000
Felt like we need a thread to discuss classlead reports.

So, uh - Someone's submitted a bunch of big buffs for Summoner. The class was powerful and had plenty of utility even after the nerfs it got last time, which it needed, but some of these reports are ridiculous. Make the pathfinder and doppleganger tankier? Killing those is the counter to them. Buff Danaeus, so the victim can't move when launched into the air? Again, ridiculous - The few seconds of chaos it causes is already pretty strong, making it stick the person in the air unable to move, or any of the other buffs, would just make it too good.

And there's a slew of reports like this - "Give us the ability to deliver a toxin", "Let us know exactly when hellsight is cured", etc. I'm sure I'm not the only one looking at some reports and wondering if the ability to file classleads should be restricted again.

In the interests of transparency, here's a list of my reports this round:

829 S   (Galt)          Fitness         Fitness has no cooldown, nor does a
830 U   (Galt)          Flaring         Runeguards have to sometimes wield
831 U   (Galt)          Circle
848 S   (Galt)          Enhance         The enhancements across the 3 knigh
849 U   (Galt)          Totems          Totems are fun, they're scary, but

Most notable are the fitness and totems ones, especially the latter, since it would effectively remove totems as they currently exist. I have yet to think of a matching report for Shaman, but intend to.




Imperian Fight Club
Dec — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 22:58:20 +0000
Imperian will be holding regular fight club meetings every day at 01:00 GMT and additionally at 17:00 GMT on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Fight club fights use arena heroes of the same profession as you are when the meeting starts. Arena heroes come with skills, artifacts, consumables, and more that you can use during your fight. Nothing that you use during the fight will affect your regular supplies. The idea is to minimize the effects of different levels and artifacts and focus just on individual skill.

To join a meeting, type GAMES REGISTER at any point before the next meeting. You will automatically be given a partner and set up when the meeting begins.

To properly incentivize the combatants, unbound credits will be awarded at the end of the game to the winner ranging from 5 to 50 credits based off of a formula that will be tweaked as time goes on. The idea is to reward upsets more strongly. The loser of a match will still get a daily credit award.

As with other instance battles, you will have the opportunity to back out during the staging portion of the game. If you do back out, you get nothing and your opponent gets daily credits.

There is also something for those of you that don't want to fight: spectator betting. Once a meeting starts, type GAMES LIST to get a list of the matches that the fighters are preparing for. Then you can GAMES BET  ON  IN . All bets are final.

In GAMES LIST, you'll see a column listing the current payouts. These payouts will change as the betting continues, and the final payout at close will be the payout that actually pays out. Payouts are determined in a time honored manner: if you win you get the money you bet, plus the money bet on the other guy in proportion to the amount you bet, minus the house fee.

In addition, logs will be made of the battles and shared on the online website. Everything sent or received during battle will be logged with the exception of received communications that are not says. Logs will be available at https://www.imperian.com/combat-logs. 

Enjoy Fighting!


Armor resistance
Xzerizenabel — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 16:52:39 +0000
Can someone explain the math on armor resistance and how it works. 


Classleads Fall 2018
Ohm — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 04:36:39 +0000
Classlead season is back. Buff engineer? Fosho! Let’s discuss classleads here. 


Beginner to combat
Mehmed — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 18:18:14 +0000
Hello!
 I was recommended to post my question here ,well  several questions . I will try to be as straightforward as possible   For your convenience
info
  ClienT is MUDRammer for ios, pretty simple program that uses   The lua language
my class is Templar
 I am legally blind and use the ios screenreader 
zero programming experience
questions
1 where should I start? 
2 what should I do in terms of triggers or aliases? 
3 what useless text do i need to block in combat?
4  what should I do to make it   Easier  To use my screenreader?
5how can I into Templar?
 Any answers are  appreciated 


Some PK Clarity
Hyperionus — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 00:03:07 +0000
I know that there is no system of PK tokens, and there is a clear difference between free and open PK.  But I also know there are some things that don't merit PK at all, and I'm wondering about a particular scenario that's been happening more frequently over the past month or two.  Player A sneaks into an enemy city, tries to PK someone for a valid reason, and gets attacked by three other players in response.  Player A then waits until these other players are by themselves, and attacks them, claiming s/he was attacked first, so it's valid.  Does this hold when the other players were just defending their own city to begin with?



Engineering Chems Discussion
Hyperionus — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 02:12:01 +0000
I've been doing some more experimenting on how to make use of my opening game strategies as an Engineer, and was hoping to get some insight from those of you who posted it when it first came out. I know chemicals are not everybody's favourite tool, but on paper they seem like an effective way to open up until I can garner focus. Unfortunately, I'm running into a problem with domecap curing times. 

I set AUTOCURING DOMECAP 1, focus with shooting and have the agile statpack which gives a balance boost. This should give me the optimal method of quickshotting Chems until I gather enough focus for a focus shot. I hit myself with a psiloite (causes limbs to break on a timer, one limb per stack is psiloite, timer between limb breaks also decreases per stacked psiloite). Autocuring hits, I eat a domecap and proceed to quickshot three more psiloite and then an ironite (causes failure on salve applications). Before the psiloite timer triggers for limb breakage, the toadstool timer resets and I cure all of it. Essentially, chemicals that operate on timers (which is everything except ironite, incendite and phosphorite) seem to be useless without a focus shot to lengthen the domecap/toadstool timer. I haven't tested the other timed chemicals to see if they act the same way, but this isn't encouraging. Did anyone who first tested this know whether this is operating as intended, or whether I could be doing something differently without using focus/trick shots?



Turn on Spar!
Ryse — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 16:17:01 +0000
I’ve noticed few people use the SPARON command, which places them into the SPARWHO list as accepting friendly duels from any circle. I’m frequently the only sad participant there, though many folks ping me for the occasional bout. 

Lets go for it! Type SPARON and punch other people in the face without worry of downtime or champ loss!

For newcomers concerned that this is a sort of PK flag...it isn’t. Players will send you a tell asking for a duel, you meet at the arena, talk like civilized people, then spar as much as you want. Folks here in Imperian are actually really friendly outside of PK events, and I’ve never seen anyone abused for having SPARON. 


Sect(shrine)-wars - clearing out the greyzones.
Elrith — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 13:21:40 +0000

Before I start, I would like to make it absolutely clear that I am fully aware that people will take this as "toxic" or something else than what I really try to bring up for discussion. But I have a honest intention to discuss and bring sect-wars into something less silly as a good thing for everyone who wish to enjoy the conflicts. An attempt to figure out how to turn sect-wars into something more reasonable and less "griefy". 

Anyhow!

Sectwars:
This is the most toxic and griefy conflict mechanism that exists in Imperian at this point. Shrines being removed and a system without any bounds or conditions often turns into a pile of really angry players that gets frustrated and blame each other for being awful. I look at sectwars like how old raids worked, there was no way to really "win" beyond making the other side completely give up and push back important gameplay so far that some players rather just quit. Before anyone starts to throw out "But last shrinewar" this and "last shrinewar" that, it is irrelevant nowadays, what I look at now is how people work around the timers on shrines and between that stand around and do.. nothing or PVE for faith and therefore push the entire status back again.

Needed changes:
Sectwars needs conditions. It needs win / lose conditions. Furthermore it needs to be very clear on the PK side. Why? Because PK still is the major reason to toxic behaviour.

You talk but what do you suggest?!

A sect should be able to commence war against another sect. This shouldn't be taken lightly, this shouldn't also be something that you can do on and off just because you are upset at one point. IF you as the leader of a sect start a war against another sect you should first off all know that you have your sect with you. 

Basically this: 

SECT COMMENCE WAR  
Upon doing this, you are notifying the other sect (leader?) that you as a leader have started a sect war against X. First step down, now people know who.

Secondly I'd remove the grey-zone of PK by making people in that sect actively take a stance (read above about how you before you start a sect war should be sure someone else is with you on it) do they want to participate or not? More or less a command that puts you on the "fighter" list.

SECT WAR  JOIN

When you join that war you are open PK. No more discussions about "I am only defiling once" or "I am only defending once". No, if you start a war against someone you are OPEN PK during that time. This is for two things. 1) There would be no issues and reasons to complain on EITHER side about when or when you are not allowed to be killed.  2) People who feel that they cannot or do not want to join that have a option to be left out for this conflict alone. 

This would be connected to the DEFILE/SANCTIFY/DESECRATE commands. You cannot use either unless you are on the list of fighters during the conflict. Once again, remove the grey-zones. 

Sect desecration
--------------
I have 2 ideas for this and I am not sure which would work better.

Currently you can have a group sit around and use DESECRATE and if nobody is hunting or building faith on the other side eventually the attacked sect turns into a cult (we think... nobody knows because its both so awfully boring to do this and there is no way to tell how much damage it does). I don't even want to push another sect into a cult, I want to have another war in the upcoming months. 

1) Turn desecration into something else. Heck, I even take 30 min of desecration of a shrine -> add 1 point to the sect doing it. With 10 points of whatnot you win the war.
2) The more griefy suggestion would be that you cannot build faith while people desecrate your altar. This is to clear out the grey-zone of people who "only PVE" to negate the entire idea behind desecrate. 

I would however love to see DESECRATE of an altar to be connected to the actual "win".


We currently see an alliance in this shrinewar shouldn't that be allowed?

This is nothing I want to limit with the rules I am after. For this reason perhaps another sect command should be added to join a conflict.

SECT WAR JOIN  (i.e).

And then they would also put themselves up on that "fighting" list in order to be able to DEFILE / SANCTIFY / DESECRATE against the sect that you currently are in war with. 

But wait? Can't you already do all of this but without the risk of being attacked outside the bounty / defile / sanctify / desecrate situation?

Yes! You can. Which is a great part of the reason to why it needs to be adjusted. Conflict without players dodging "in and out" of it and creating grey-zones is one of the most frustrating situations there is. I haven't talked with anyone so far who thinks that the removal / adding shrines back and forth and the need to bash up the faith in between the timers on shrine is a fun thing. Losing shrines that takes serious work to rebuild shouldn't be taken lightly. Nor should the only way to win such a conflict be to stomp another sect into a cult. Who'd even want that? And this leads us to...


SECT YIELD  

I am unsure if there should be conditions to this like above or what else could be added to it but it should be something that's a formal "Ok stop we are done".  I can think of numberous of things added to this. Unable to build new shrines for 1 IG year? Unable to start war against another sect for X? Unable to defile shrines for X? Et cetera et cetera and of course the most important thing, the bragging rights to the winning sect. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you read this please ignore the current war between hunger + leechwood / flame. I am not complaining about how it turns out I am just lifting things we discussed between us in magick and mostly my own ideas.

I cannot say I have worked out every single detail or thought about every single scenario, this is a first attempt to raise the discussion. I would love if people would help me bring it up and point out flaws and bad reasoning with construtive reasoning. Also I would love to hear if Admins think about this and if there are any plans for changing it.

Thanks for your time!





Defiler - But wait, there's more!
Galt — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 17:29:46 +0000
So, everyone knows Defiler damage and burst is pretty OP. What risks being overlooked in this is other things about Defiler that stand out as likely overpowered, too.

Affliction tanking:

 - AB SHADOWBINDING ANTIBODIES, AB SHADOWBINDING TRANSMISSION. Passive aff healing/transfer to enemy
 - AB TORMENT BILESHROUD Passive % chance to ignore toxins
 - AB DESECRATION HEARTBLOOD Ability to have a high chance to shrug off a specified toxin for a full minute*
 - A def to greatly reduce limb damage taken

This is a problem for a variety of reasons - In isolation, all of the above are powerful, class-defining skills, like therapeutics is for Bard, yet Defiler has all of the above and they stack. %-shrugging of all toxins alone is incredible, even if it's only 10% or 15%, whilst being able to specify one toxin to have a high shrug for a full minute is incredible. 

For comparison to bileshroud, we'll look at AB SHAPESHIFTING MOONAURA. Moonaura is a 20% chance to reflect a toxin back at an enemy, but the toxin still hits the hunter. As a comparison to shrugging in general, we'll look at AB SABOTAGE SHRUGGING, also found in predation. This allows the user to specify a single toxin to shrug and can be used again every 8 seconds.

The key thing here is that the above skills - Moonaura, shrugging - Are considered powerful individually, yet the Defiler has equivalents to both that are more powerful and also has passive aff healing/return.

Health:

 - AB DESECRATION SUSTAIN, active heal. Costs treant HP, but they can heal the treant each combo using nurture.
 - AB TORMENT BLOODDRINKER - Heals them passively based on any bleeding in room.
 - AB SHADOWBINDING REGROWTH - Passive heal. Consumes haze if you're not at max health.
 - AB SHADOWBINDING HEALTHDRAIN. Steal health. Scales up the lower the defiler is. Also has a mana version.
 - AB TORMENT TEARS. Allows the defiler to LICK TARGET to heal, periodically. Doesn't require balance, can be used off balance. 

Three passive/almost passive health restoring skills, none of which count to the regen cap, one of which scales up more in teamfights. Two active heals, because evidently one was insufficient.
 
Hinder:

 - AB DESECRATION ENTANGLE, AB DESECRATION RIGIDITY, AB DESECRATION TEMPEST, AB BLACKVINES
 - That's a spammable entangle, an aff that makes writhing take longer, a passive pet that hits with clumsiness.

Spammable entangle. Other examples of this were removed or gated - Hangedman now requires the target be prone, transfix requires blind stripped, druid entangle requires a two-step attack. Entangle, even in isolation, shouldn't work the way this currently does. Having a skill that makes writhing take even longer on a class that can passively entangle enemies on movement is a bit much, too.

Blackvines are... just awful. They entirely block flight, can be spammed in multiple rooms, always entangle enemies on movement. They shouldn't do all of that. 


Holding:
 - AB SHADOWBINDING MISTBIND. 33% chance to stop enemies leaving. 
 - AB DESECRATION BLACKVINES. Entangle on leaving a room. Completely blocks flight in the location. Can be spammed in multiple rooms. Impacts all enemies. (See also: Rigidity, entangle.)
 - AB DESECRATION WHIRLPOOL - Flood. Because I guess they needed that, too. And waterwalking, since they have flood.

Timebomb classes shouldn't have good holding. It needs to have holes in it, or the timebomb becomes ridiculous. Take Bard for example - Icewalls from sketches and engage from sketches, and that's it because they're a timebomb class. 

Damage: 
 
 - Relies on psychic damage, the hardest type to resist.
 - Has a skill to drastically lower psychic resist. Not curable. Seems to drop people from about 30% (max minis, psychic resist ring) to -1%. 
 - Entropy. Entropy only decays 60 seconds after they last hit the target with an entropy-inducing skill. Almost every attack they have counts. 

Each of the above categories Defiler is OP in - And there are other skills they have that seem unreasonable when looked at in a wider context. Often, their skills have multiple effects, such as rigidity and blackvines that both do multiple things which would be split into different skills on other classes. Simply put, Defiler was given far too many fun toys when it was being made, and to be made a timebomb class on top of that is frustrating as hell to fight. This is a class that can do 130-180 damage per combo, burst for 600+ using a resource that they can build up whilst still hindering a target enough to stop them having any chance of maintaining an offense, and it also happens to have random skills tacked - Flood, Waterwalking, Project, Apparition, resistance to limb damage, UnseenEye - It's like people kept asking if Defiler could have X, and just got it added without any sense for overall balance. 

Defiler has more tricks in each of the three skillsets than some classes have across their entire 3 and that's not ok.

EDIT: Oh, and they get the ability to block also, for... some reason. I'm surprised they don't also get phase.


Hunter Advice?
Orgoloth — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 20:40:51 +0000
Hey!

I’m growing a little dejected as I level Hunter, and thought I’d ask for some advice as I rarely see Hunters online. There isn’t much discussion in searching the forums. I’m almost 80, and have Shapeshifting transd. 

A few questions - 

-Am I always going to feel so squishy? Both in bashing and PvP I feel super vulnerable and die all the time. 

-What should I be doing in PvP? The gist I have is “sting people, and try to rupture”. Is that about it? Should I instead be doing something else?

-Does anyone keep the pet around? The bat doesn’t seem to do much. 

I tried Hunter because the flavor of turning into a giant spider is cool, and the combat strategy seemed simple enough. 


Professions from Easiest to Hardest
Myu — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 05:18:55 +0000
As someone very new and curious about all the classes (and wanting to explore them all but obviously cant) I am just wondering what some of the easiest professions to play are and which are the hardest.

People did reinforce that I pick the profession I enjoy the most and the rest will come, but it is true that Predator is very hard and I have no idea what I'm doing sometimes. Hehe 

So I was curious about Magic and Demonic profession. Bard looks pretty cool. Druid seems neat too. I dont really know Demonic classes except Assassin with the worm devour. 

Even if it's just a list going from hardest to easiest I would appreciate it! Or you can get as in depth as you can. Or just throw in your two cents about which profession you think is the easiest/hardest/coolest. 


Best classes for 1-100?
Titus — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 23:51:22 +0000
Which classes are considered superior for bashing these days? Everything has changed since I last played and if I'm going to make a character, I'm going to need to be able to bash well. 

If you had to list the top two bashing classes from each circle, what would they be, and how would you rank them against each other?


Improving Imperian Combat
Iniar — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 06:36:48 +0000
Rule #1. Don't be a douche.


Engineering Help for a Newb
Hyperionus — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 15:35:30 +0000
In the recent raids, I started learning everything I don't know about my profession.  So: 

How do I use the gyrocoptor/sniper ability?  According to the ab file you can sniper anyone in the same area.  When I tried SHOOT , it told me I needed to specify a direction.  If said player is not in a straight line from me, but in the same area, what is the syntax?

Trying to RANDOMSHOT three bullets from a gyrocoptor caused my shot to fall out.  Is this a hint that certain attacks aren't allowed while in the air?

Can I really store my already-filled hollowshot in the Rift and not deal with chemical decay?

Is CREMATE as insta-kill as it sounds?

Finally, this is my first MUD, so some advice on basic ways to make PvP more manageable would be greatly appreciated.



Calling All Combatants Old and New
Owyn — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 19:17:27 +0000
I have an idea that might be fun. If you have a Tome of the Undying (or if you don't mind bashing to 100), roll a level 100 no-artifact, no-extra-lessons newbie. Let's have like a... Tome of the Undying Tournament. Not restricted to tome champs, of course, as long as the same criteria is met. It would be interesting because you wouldn't be tri-trans and you wouldn't have a lot of healing skills. It could be its own little thing, since those of you who are left mostly sit around doing nothing. Might as well fill the nothing with something ridiculous.

If there are enough of us we could even do lowbie teams. 
¯\_(ツ)_/¯





New to combat
Dinarl — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 21:43:18 +0000
I am new to combat but wanting to get into it, but not exactly sure where to begin i am playing monk. i have been attempting to prep legs for breaks, then breaking an arm to start salve use, breaking legs and tripping then attempting to get 1-2 back breakers in, and see where that gets me. Not sure what to do with telepathy or kaido at the moment. Any tips would be appreciated 


Hunter help
Lodoss — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 20:02:52 +0000
I recently attained aspect via mage/hunter class I currently play, and I was wondering how viable hunter pvp is as of this year, and preferred methods/routes that leads to affliction stacked damage, or secure blood poison stacks to rupture properly?


Help PK
Laeka — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 21:36:13 +0000
From what Jeremy posted in the other thread, HELP PK needs to be updated and changed to reflect the current views of the adminstration because as of right now, those that are new to Imperian, new to PK in Imperian or whatever are going by those rules/guidelines outlined in that scroll and they are apparently no longer valid. 

Please update the scroll. 


Assassin Combat?
Evelene — Sat, 27 Jan 2018 03:45:08 +0000
I have nobody but myself to blame for putting myself in the hole I've dug -- zero combat experience and one of the, quote, 'most difficult professions to master'. But I wanna do it.

I need any advice, as I'm building from.. nothing. Any sort of direction will be very appreciated. As it stands, I've got trans Sabotage and Spatium, but Hypnosis is just barely at Anorexia. 


PvP Logs
Iluv — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 02:28:34 +0000
Post all PVP logs here.

To start, here is a log of Septus and Shou against Kabaal and Iluv.

https://ada-young.appspot.com/pastebin/d3be1b77


Group fighting
Tyden — Tue, 06 Sep 2016 20:27:14 +0000
As I dive more and more into Imperian and it's combat, I have one issue that I keep seeing.

Fights quickly go from "even" to whoever can call in the most troops. Which is fine, I suppose...in larger groups 6v4...etc. The issue is more relevant to the 4v1's happening out there. 

This is my experience within Midkemiaonline, and that game was far from perfect(obviously giving it's closing), but one thing it did do right was have a somewhat accuracy malus that really deterred these "group gankings". It didn't mean that the 1 vs 4 had a advantage(they usually ended up dying), but it did at least give them a fighters chance in some situations. 
Edit:

Guess I didn't explain accuracy malus: Basically it is the more people actively attacking a person, the more chance the attacks will miss

So I guess the reason for this topic is, has accuracy malus for group combat ever been discussed? Should it be?


Outrider Help
Ahruiz — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 04:18:00 +0000
I am trying to learn Outrider PK, and I think I have a general idea of what my plan is going into 1v1s. I try to stick a bunch of nightshade afflictions and either set a couple of limbs up for a switch into a shatter setup or a big bloodfreeze when I know I have dryblood on them. It doesn't seem that complicated, and relatively easy to track. There are some things I would like help with, though:

1) Pets. 
     They attack 3s after ordered to with an 8s interval between attacks. Do I just order them all to attack and then cycle through surges? 
     Are there any surges which are not worth using? E.x. Surge strip causes a pet which normally causes nausea (good) to strip a defence (maybe not good?) 
     I can cycle through about 3 surges minimum based on pet attack speed  and the equilibrium cost of surge. 
     Is it worth tracking the cooldowns on pet attacks?
2) Toxins
     @Septus told me that the big important ones are chiltran, xeroderma, and ciguatoxin, which makes sense. Any other toxins worth using situationally?
     Since I currently have a small bug of having my armor only give 66% of the defences it should, can I use toxins defensively while I set up limbs? Or is that dumb? I know almost nothing about PK.
3) Bloodfreeze
    What percentage cold mitigation does trans frost give?
4) Batter/Smash
    Are these abilities ever worth using? 

I know this is a lot of questions. I appreciate any help I can get. Thank you.
   





Enslavery
Galt — Sun, 15 Oct 2017 22:03:01 +0000
Made a chart of what Enslavery does, trying to learn how to deal with Summoners.
Enslavery offers the following abilities:
Summoning           The ability to bind demons.
Unleash             Unleash the power of bound demons.
Skyrax              Waterwalking			AoE tentacle effect
Rixil               +1 int				Amnesia on target
Eerion              Arrowcatch				Prone on target	
Arctar              +10% physical resists		Shield self or ally
Scrag               20% faster clot bal			Causes significant bleeding
Pyradius            +10% elemental resists		Gain 30% taint
Dameron             Unleash Dameron faster		Unleash another demon, ignoring it's cooldown
Palpatar            15% sip bonus			Target's next health sip 50% weaker
Nin'Kharsag         Celerity effect			Target moves as if over rubble for 10 sec
Istria              Pathfinder				n/a
Marduk              +2 con				10 second instakill
Belial              faster unleash			steal 15% of targets current health
Buul                Reckless immunity			Remove speed defence
Cadmus              Tree tattoo clone, 15sec c/d	Afflicts with hallucinations and addiction
Piridon             Doppleganger pet			n/a
Mask                Hides doppie/pathfinder		n/a
Danaeus             -2 dex, unleash more often		The target is flung into the air and prevented from landing for 4 seconds. Other players can still bring the target back down.			
Lyncantha     Alerts when other player enters/leaves area	Damage and breaks two limbs. Big damage if all 4 limbs already broken.
Tarotlink           Doppie card throwing		n/a
Hecate              +10% damage, works like a collar	Forma, then forma again 5 sec later
Golgotha            -15% sip, but unleash more often	Significant damage
For more information, type AB ENSLAVERY .
You have 23 unlearned abilities in Enslavery. AB ENSLAVERY FULL to see them.

Third column is unleash effects, which work as follows:

Unleash (Enslavery)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Syntax:   SUMMON 
          BANISH 
          PACTS
          UNLEASH  AT 
Details:
Once you have obtained a pact with a Demon Lord, you can make use of its power in two ways.

First, you can SUMMON the demon, causing it to possess you. This has two effects - the possession grants you a defensive effect (different for each
demon), and it also reduces the unleashing cooldown for that demon by 20 seconds.

You can be possessed by a maximum of FIVE demons at any time, which means that you will need to pick which defensive effects you want, or which
demons you want to be able to unleash more often. You can use BANISH  to purge yourself of a possession, so you can obtain a different 
one instead.

Second, you can UNLEASH the demon at a target, causing an effect different for each demon. This ability operates on its own balance, independent of
the regular equilibrium and balance. You can unleash a demon once every 5 seconds, and each demon has a cooldown before it may be unleashed again. 
Unless stated otherwise, this cooldown is 40 seconds, reduced to 20 seconds if you are possessed by that demon.

The PACTS command notifies you about your current pacts, possessions, and cooldowns that are in effect.

NOTE: Istria and Piridon are used differently from other demons. They cannot be unleashed, and summoning them grants you an entity instead of a
defence. More details are in the respective AB help files.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------




So that's five of the bonuses from the 2nd column, 6 with the artifact. Because of how unleash works, that's a 60% taint bonus early in the fight if they want it.

Notable problems I see with this:

 - +2 con, +15% sip, +10% phys and elem resists possible on a class with scalemail armour.
 - Large number of the possessions are niche, replicated by artifacts or somewhat specific in what they counter, leading to...
 - No meaningful choice in possession options - the 15% sip boost, +2 con and certain other choices become no-brainers.

I'm aware that I might be missing some downside to the profession, or that there's some counter I'm unaware of, but it feels as if Summoner currently has some of the best tanking ability, one of the best aff healing skills, some of the best escape skills (pathfinder, hermit, universe), solid-to-good holding (Tentacles, rubble-effect unleash), the most flexible ranged attacks and some of the best damage output of any profession.

But even ignoring Noctu and Tarot, and looking just at Enslavery - it has incredible bonuses and they get to pick 6 of them out of a pool of 18, with a number of those being situational or replaceable with artifacts to further reduce the meaningful choice in the skill.

Even just the damage tanking combo of +2 con, +15% health sip and 10% resists is incredible. FOCUS CADMUS is something that no other class gets, as far as I can tell - the closest comparison is Bard therapeutics and songbird, which offer significantly less control. 

What am I missing, if anything?