Templates
I rate templates in three groups, 1st generation, 2nd generation and 3rd generation. Of course there are three different classes so each will have a different template for each generation. People use some of the old templates even today. Advantages are easer to start and a little advantage against chain casting monsters, more hit points.
Melee
1st generation templates were not all that bad. They have a few flaws by today's standards but are mostly playable. Elder and Fist de Yuma are 1st generation templates. We spec'd the main attack and defense. Sword users had to just train melee D as there are not enough points. Most of us took missile, which is the main weakness of the template. Going to be hard for us to get Life. The main thing about this template is more endurance and not maxed out stats. Fist de Yuma stats started out as 80, 50, 90, 70, 30, 10. Elders stats are even more balanced.
Turbine has a habit of making their words come true over time. When this template was popular Turbine said you should spec your main skills and missile was a must. At the time this was not true. Spec'ing a skill was a total waste of points. This led to second generation templates.
2nd generation melee templates had a little less endurance than 1st and did not spec any skills. At the time there was only a 10 point spread between spec'ed skills and non-spec'ed skills at high level. Getting creature more than made the difference. About this time we were aware of missile being a total waste so most did not take that skill. A lot of 2nd generation templates took Bow as a second skill. Few archers had hit the wall and it was still thought as the Uber skill.
Turbine made their statement on spec'ing skills come true with a patch. This changed the spread at high levels to 30-40 between spec'ed skills and non-spec'ed skills. After this patch 2nd generations templates were total gimps. Most were deleted or made into mules and few are seen today.
3rd generation templates are often called extreme templates. They are notable for having 10 endurance. Spec'ing Life was unheard of a year ago for a melee. Today most new melee are planning on having three magic schools with Life spec'ed.
Because Turbine likes to make their words true, if a bit late, I expect that missile will be a bad lack in the future. Another change between templates was lockpick. A year ago this was a nice skill. I waited to 45 to get it but wanted it much sooner. With the coming of chests (to prevent camping) lockpick was ruined as a needed skill. I think Turbine will make lockpick less that useless but not as good as skill as it was. If I had not taken lockpick I would have Life by now.
One last melee template is becoming popular. This is the no magic template. Very strong if paired with a mage later in life. 100, 10, 100, 100, 10, 10. Spec combat skills and defense.
Archer
Archer had about the same as melee in its growth. Missile was thought to be very important in 1st generation. Few had Life or even creature. 2nd generation had a lot of trained skills with no spec'd. 3rd generation has 10 endurance, Life and lots of focus. 2nd generation templates were not hurt as much as melee with spec change. A few of this type have made it to high levels. Even some 1st generation templates had Life so over time the only real change was removing missile and lowering endurance for focus.
A strange new template has hit the boards. It is called an Og Archer. I'm thinking that with time it will be strong. There are variations but the extreme one is 10, 10, 100, 10, 100, 100. Spec Bow and Life. Train Mana Conversion and Creature. I could be wrong on this as I could not find an essay on the template. The template has no melee and depends on life protects for defense. I'm guessing you pickup up healing and fletching later.
Mages
Mages have gone though as much change or more than melee. 1st generation templates spec'd one school, mostly Life or Mana Conversion. Few mages max'ed out their stats. A bit later Life's drain skill was reduced in power by a lot. After this a few of players spec' war instead. Generally creature and item were pickup up at 9 and 26 respectively.
2nd generation templates also have two stages. With the usefulness of Spec'ing being challenged many opted to have every school at startup with no spec'ing. Then came sticky. Sticky really sucked for mages. I remember Sidartha telling me how he had ran over the hills to escape mountain rats before sticky. After sticky he had to get armor.
At this time about every mage had a Mattie robe. They were very common. Few had any other armor and using item to buff the robe was not done as much. The results was a lot of dead mages in the first few days after the sticky patch. One friend of mine was killed by Mosswarts, kind of embarrassing for a 35lv mage.
Almost every mage created in the next month had melee defense or at least planned to getting it. Lord Bane's template was very popular at this time.
What forced 3rd generation mage templates was the island. The magic resistance on the monsters there forced players to create something that could fight them. The winners seem to be the OG, OG+ and Battle Mage templates.
All of the above seem best with stats like; (40 - 70), (40 - 70), 10, 10, 100, 100. Some lean in the strength direction, others in endurance. I lean in the direction of Strength and my battle mage has 70, 40, 10, 10, 100, 100. My OG is 60, 50, 10, 10, 100, 100.
It was found that with buffs a 10 quick mage would have little problem keeping up. As speed does not effect fighting like it does a fighter having it at minimum had not hurt. Coordination was never thought as a mage skill so there is not much change there.
OG template is Spec'ed Life and Creature. Trained Item and Mana Conversion. War is picked up at 26. At that point it is complete and this it the main advantage of the OG template. Draining for 26lvs is not easy but a Battle Mage is much worst.
Battle Mage is Spec'ed War and Life. Mana Conversion is picked up at 7 with item or creature at 20. At 50 it is finished with the picking up of the last skill. There some debate on which is stronger. I lean towards the Battle Mage being stronger.
With level VII spells there is a sudden interest in spec'ing Mana Conversion. Getting it to 300 is much too costly as a trained skill. Hell it is much too costly as a Spec'ed skill. This has led to the OG+ template.
The OG+ template Spec's Life, Creature and Mana Conversion. War is taken at 26 and Item at 60 or Item at 9 and War at 60. This will be a super template but I knew of few who can make one. The pain of not having war or item until 60 boggles the mind.
Now that a lot better
Fist de Yuma still has weakness but figured overcoming them with a few spells would be faster than replacing the armor. Putting Imp VI, Fire, Frost, Lighting and Bludgeoning bane VI on my shield made a world of difference. I also removed my Piercing protection and replaced it with Armor VI.
Seeing "Drudge sparks your for 0 damage" was most satisfying. Getting hit for 2 to 4 damage by a bandy, when I got hit, let me keep ahead of the spells.
I was still healing from spells but without that big hit I could heal and finish the battle. The main danger is something coming up in back of me or any time I have to run. Big hits from the rear will be a problem. Best bet is to stand in and take it.
So now I have both my fighters in the island. Be a while before Cliff Bowman makes it. The monsters on the new islands are falling nicely so there is no need as of yet.
Why Play?
I had someone tell me once that the object of the game was to get high as possible in as short a time as possible. Of course I disagreed.
I see players that spend a lot of time and effort helping others with no reward possible. I read a story about a player the other day. He recovered about 10 bodies for several other players, none in his alliance or had he ever met them.
This was very typical of AC a while back. It still is today but surprisingly you have to go to the smaller towns to find it. A friend had a body to get and asked for help in two places that have the most people, the AB lifestone and the Subway. He could not find any help.
I'm not surprised. This is the place for people who mostly have no interest in the game. They're in it for profit. Not everyone of course but I see few of these players ever playing. No objections as there not hurting me at all. The lag sucks there but I'm in and out fast anyway.
So if you need help you're more likely to find it in Lin than the Subway, in AB proper than around the LS. There are a lot of people who level very slowly because they spend more time helping others than leveling. That is how they play and have fun.
Playing and having fun is the object of the game, not leveling.
I admit that I'm having fun with my 74lv fighter and 60lv mage. I have just as much fun with my 37lv archer. I also started a battle mage (spec war/life) on We. He is 7lv now and collecting trash for pyreal and comps. I got Mana Conversion at 7lv so things will be a little better. I get Item at 20 and things will be better still. Creature at 50 and I have one of the best mages going. I will have a ball every step of they way.
Elder buff night
We have started a buff night for members of our alliance. The high level players go to a leveling spot and provide buffs to members of Elder. Many places have two members for buffing. We plan on an hour but mostly we arrive early and stay late. Really is working well.
A bit of humor in it. I'm watching some players make an attempt at some shadows. Someone had been chased to our buffing spot a while back by an Shadow LT. It was funny as hell to see it incased in players. Being low levels the LT had little damage even with 7 to 10 players pounding on it. I tossed an imperil and it dropped in seconds.
Anyway I see these two players run towards the three Shadows. I'm thinking of running down and giving them support. No time. One dies in seconds and the other runs. To give him credit, he really tried to run away from the main people buffing. He did not run far enough and the shadow ran over and attacked my un-buffed self. I guess I should have ran to the portal but I didn't. I was quickly down to a handful of points. Tried a drain but was on my "Buffing Others" bar.
Here is Fist de Mage, who laughs at Unbris shadows (and has his greatest battle ever in a few days) killed by a lowly shadow.
Another funny thing was a mage who runs up asking for buffs. He said he had a body and need the buffs to recover. I first checked to see if he was Elder. I had Elders in line and would get to him after that last Elder was buffed. The guys Fellowship name was "I don't give buffs".
LOL. I commented on it and he quickly removed the fellowship. I can understand what he was possibility going though. I get asked for buffs wherever I go. Fist de Yuma more that Fist de Mage. As Yuma does not have creature I sometimes wonder about that.
PK Night
My vassal Balash setup a PK event this Sunday. It was one on one competition with classes by levels. The members met in Lin and headed to that alter in mass. Then we went to an out of the way spot. There were so many battles planed that we had to have three going on at once.
Of course mages were the king, despite a small buffing time limit. A Mage vs Melee was over fast. Only upset was an archer in a lower category. Mage vs Mage took a while and generally the most experienced PK would win. In the last match I saw a move I had never seen before.
Two mages had each other in a drain contest. A few war spells had them both down. One war spell and it was over either way. They were face-to-face and little chance to avoid a spell. The mage made the windup and the other one jumped straight up. He had it timed perfect and the spell passed harmlessly under him. He landed and got his war spell off to win the fight.
A melee did a lot of running and healing against a mage. At one point had the mage down to 3 mana. But a Melee just cannot do enough damage to keep a mage from coming back. A mana potion and a few spells later the mage was back to full. Lasted longer than anyone thought it would but the issue was never in doubt.
The melees in my tree faired poorly and Bleu Sky did not enjoy it at all. Black Dove lost her fight in the first round. The mages especially Quren did very well. Quren is a mage and an experienced PK so he had a big advantage.
Interesting or boring was in your point of view but Melee vs Melee never seemed to end. With no de-buffs even an over matched player can drink, heal and stay in the fight. In one battle we waited a long while for it to end. Three more matches were setup while they fought. All three ended and the battle as still on. They both were even able to rebuff their weapons in the fight. Finally the fight was called as a draw.
Only one person tried to crash the event. Of course one player trying to take on 35 others was not smart. Nevertheless it made us move. Me and another person scouted to see in any groups were forming up to invade but all was clear. I had to get some tells from my vassal Bleu Sky to find where they moved it to.
After it was all over the group headed to the Alter in mass. A few had to wait for the three hours to get white but enough people stayed red to have little danger from a passing PK.
Yours truly did not go red even though I was there every step of the way start to finish. Mage might go PK someday but Fist is a helper not a killer and I intend to keep it that way.
Winners of the PK event were as follows;
Shi Longthei Gryphon in the level 9-12 category
Bloodfist Blane (Spelling) 21-30
Lil Lion in the 31-40
Ryan the Wary in the 41-50
Nyneave Sedai for the 51-70
Heideggar in the 71+
Biggest battle ever
While waiting with the PK's for the three hours to pass I got a tell from Di Di. They were forming up a quest on the Island and he wanted to know if I was interested. I said yes and logged Mage.
They were already deep in but were waiting for others to arrive. I knew I could get to the end of the pillars but after that did not know what to expect. I buffed up and started along the pillars. One Coral was all I found along with a mob of mages camping the others.
I made it to the end and was surprised to see four corals crowded around a white pillar. Di Di said other players were coming. I wanted to take on the Corals and Di Di encouraged me to go for it.
I yielded one and three of them started marching forward. I tried a yield on a second one but it was resisted. Three pounding on me and tossing spells was piling up the damage. I drain the one I was fighting a bit and two lost interest and returned to the spawn.
Even with one it was not an easy fight as I got hit by Turbines non-random number generator. Five resists in a row with 308 war on a Coral with yield VI on it.
I knew I was lucky to win that. If the other two had not left I was toast. As it was I was down to a handful of hit points, stamina and mana. I took a little time and got back up. Then tried again.
I land the yield and then put the vuln on. Trying to de-buff them all at once was not working. All three started marching on me. I got two blasts in before they reached me. I got some acid damage and hits before I dropped number one. Then turned to number two. Drain got me back. Stamina to Mana and Drain stamina returned mana. Then a few more drains to recover the damage.
Yield and vuln sets it up. Four blasts and it drops. I had really hopped that last one had gone back to its spawn by then but no luck. I'm low on everything. I get a drain and mana conversion made three big saves. I got a drain to keep me alive and a drain stamina with only a few points of mana lost. Then a stamina to mana VI which worked even though I only had 15 mana.
Now I have enough to work with. Yield, vuln and two drains and another stamina to mana. Now the resists start kicking in. Three resists in five spells. I'm one hit away from death and enough mana for one spell. The Coral has enough health to live though a weak hit. I pray as the last spell go off and I'm almost surprised when the Coral collapses at my feet.
That last fight took so long that the other two had rotted. A few gems in loot but a great pride in the accomplishment. Three 341lv monsters at once.
Two others on the quest arrived and we buffed as much as possible. The last time I made this run I was at a few hit points in a hurry. I still think it is best done as a fight. The biggest danger are the white wasps. With a little distance an archer or mage can take then one at a time. No danger at all, but time consuming.
We started the run. I had gone shopping the day before so even with a buffed 204 strength I was at 130 burden. The others run and I did my best to keep up. I'm falling further and further behind. The mass of white wasps are so thick that I have to run around them. Some Bones start chasing me but I'm trying my best not to have to exit this quest.
I'm at 7 hit points and I hit heal IV. It hits just as a Bone catches up with me. When I toss the spell I stopped of course. I know there are ways to cheat and cast a spell while running. I try not to cheat. I hit heal again. By this time the other are out of sight and I'm trapped against the hill. I heal two more times and hit recall.
Really sucks. Two attempts and two portals recalls. I'm having goals that will take 5 more levels to get. Then I will start back on strength and endurance. Meanwhile I need to find a way to lower my burden for quests.
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