Can I Play My Original Character Yet?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Jaanelle DeJure, Jun 21, 2020.

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  1. Jaanelle DeJure

    Jaanelle DeJure Avatar

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    Hello Shroud Community!

    It's been a long while, and I've been reading up on all the changes- and promised changes- since last Fall. I'm thinking there might be some possibility that I can now play the actual character I originally intended which, for various reasons, was quite impossible to play in this game previously. Here's a basic sketch:

    Jaan is an old- a very old- Druidess. She's basically kind at heart, but also has a couple of screws loose, and for this reason finds it somewhat difficult to "settle down" and continues to wander the lands, and often into dangerous situations, seeking rare reagents to gather.

    Basically- Jaan's thing is Gathering. Anything else she might know- such as a smattering of magic or barding- is aimed at defending herself against attackers and thieves. Or better yet, hiding from them and moving about stealthily.

    She makes her modest living selling reagents and other odds-and-ends to adventurers she meets along the way, and also peddles information and rumors which might be of value to the seeker. Her expertise is in having deep knowledge about the lands that she roams- knowing exactly where to find resources, food, treasure, and other hidden secrets. Occasionally, she might join with a party in order to gain access to areas in which she cannot venture alone, but mostly lives a solitary life.


    In non-RP terms, here are some of the roadblocks I previously encountered. I would be interested to hear back from others regarding if, and how, these situations have changed.

    1. Gathering was not a profitable activity, neither in terms of gold or experience. The XP it yielded was laughable, and pretty much everything could be purchased off of NPC vendors for prices so low that it was quite impossible to earn a living.

    2. Bard skills did not exist.

    3. Stealth skills did not really function correctly, therefore resulting in little way to gather in higher tier areas without high-level combat and magic skills.

    4. The main skill trees that fit with my character's design- earth magic and bludgeon weapons- were wildly unbalanced. Bludgeons, specifically, were a total joke, both literally and figuratively.

    5. Finding a group was exceedingly difficult. Even after LFG functions were put in, most groups were just hanging out in a handful of XP grinding zones, while the majority of zones went unused.

    Looking forward to hearing about these items, or the general state of the game and the ability of the dev team to deliver on their promises under new leadership.

    Cheers!

    Jaan the Druidess
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2020
  2. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    What is a druid though?
     
  3. Jaanelle DeJure

    Jaanelle DeJure Avatar

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    Hi Barugon! :D

    Well... the Druids were a degenerate group of doddering fools, whose aloof and cowardly natures led them to abandon the Virtue of Justice. In the last days of the Age of Armageddon, a particularly treacherous member of their foul ilk lead the charge to call forth the dreaded Black Gate, which led directly to the final Cataclysm of that Age. In the aftermath, Jaan's great grandmothers convened a new Order of the Crimson Druidesses, whose first charge was to scour the sundered lands searching for any remnants of their debased male counterparts, rendering unto them the Final Justice, in order that Balance could once again be restored, and for Life to once again begin anew. In this rejuvenated world, which later became known as "Novia" there are no Druids, but only Druidesses, and even they remain largely unrevealed to its inhabitants, preferring to continue their sacred rites in solitude under the broken light of the Sundered Moon.
     
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  4. Anpu

    Anpu Avatar

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    Gathering is now very rewarding. The single most expensive and sought after item, Beetle Carapace, can only be found while gathering.

    Bludgeon and Earth magic is a fantastic combination that works well. In fact, that’s what I’m currently playing. You will need other skills from other trees however.

    And the Taming skill works very well now, and that should fit with a Druid like character concept.
     
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  5. Duke Gréagóir

    Duke Gréagóir Legend of the Hearth

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    That is funny as I am a Druid from day one yet your story says no druids exist anymore. And I am not part of a degenerate group either. :D
     
  6. Jaanelle DeJure

    Jaanelle DeJure Avatar

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    Yikes! I guess that means we must become mortal enemies! (I did say Jaan has a couple of screws loose.) In-game only, of course. BTW- Thanks for the guides. :D
     
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  7. Ysold

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    Hi Jaanelle,
    I'm building my "treasure hunter" character almost exactly like that, for the same style of play, except I chose Fire instead of Earth. I'm still low level (too busy exploring to train seriously:)) but I'm very happy with bludgeon, especially while gathering in spider-infested areas. A few whacks with the staff and exit 4 spiders.
    I'm doing the subterfuge-way of stealth, but up to now mobs can easily smell me out. I hope that improves when I put in a bit of training. I also still need to find out what I can do and what I can't do while hidden; gathering can't be done while hidden but looting can. I only wish there were better indicators how soon my stealth will run out. Now I need to check 2 small icons.
    XP while gathering is fine, especially with Meticulous collection, which gives bonusses of 100-1000 XP per event. An hour of gathering will give me about 10K XP from these bonusses, which is nice at my level!
    I can't really think what my character can add to a group, but at some point I'll make a healer for that purpose.

    Anyway, I'm having lots of fun and I think you should try your character again.
     
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  8. Toular

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    For gathering don't underestimate the random encounters. In some of them you don't even have to worry about combat, and they all have cotton bushes and depending on the time of year, a good about of beetle carapaces and hoppers (fish bait). The plains encounter also offers a small amount of serpent scales.
     
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  9. crummel

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    As answers or comments to your questions:

    at 1. Gathering can give you a "meticulous collection" which yields adventure and crafting XP between 100 and 2500 XP. Since we have a 2 x XP bonus this is 200 to 5000 XP. So if your gathering skills are high enough and you are using the right equipment to boost meticulous collection, you can collect quite some XP.

    at 2. Bard skills do exist now. They have quite a long cast time and you cant do anything else but that. After casting the effect lasts for about 45 secs, IIRC, so you have to recast all the time. For my taste the bard skills are very strong buffs and will maybe even work very well solo with a strong pet, but I haven't tried that myself. For melee (see bludgeon below) always having to refresh the bard songs doesn't work well solo. I my opinion bard is a support class for groups. Which doesn't mean some players don't use it solo and successful.

    at 3. I have not used the Subtlety skill tree, so I can't really comment on that. I saw skills that made you invisible as long as you stand still, no idea about stealthily movement.

    at 4. As already mentioned above bludgeon & earth magic is a very viable combination and a lot of players use it. Earth buffs strength which increases your melee damage and encumberence, which is a plus for your gathering.

    at 5. Whenever I look at the LFG function I see that there is a "level 115+ control point XP grinding group" which is already full, as well as mentoring groups in Soltown. Last few days I have seen XP groups in Ruined Keep, so apart from that last destination, yes, I guess the situation is still more or less the same and there is almost nothing going on in LFG. It might be different with guild groups.
     
  10. Cora Cuz'avich

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    Technically, up to 5000, but so far the only t6 nodes are in Tartarus.
     
  11. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    In Lamech's Bazaar on hard mode, I had a 86% chance to skin a spider. I assume that's higher than tier 5. I've seen instances of that too in other scenes.
     
  12. Cora Cuz'avich

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    Huh, I hadn't noticed. But yeah, I was only thinking of ore/tree/cotton nodes. (Jaanelle seems to be more interested in gathering than skinning.) I had forgotten that there were higher-than-t5 skinning nodes. But if I recall, they don't give as much on meticulous? I know for dragons, you don't get the full amount of the base xp for meticulous. Though I think there have been patches since I last skinned a dragon, so maybe that has changed.
     
  13. Rat2

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    Fundamentally, I don't think there have been enough people in the game that they would be worried about purging data.
     
  14. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

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    Unfortunately, there really are not any adventuring skills that are not combat related. Stealth exists, but only in very short term abilities that don't actually seem to work against most enemies, and only as a set up to backstabbing. Distraction is about the only one I can actually use to get around with, and its too situational. There are no Pick Locks skills, and even Pickpocket only works against PvP enabled players. Treasure Hunting is kind of DOA until they add support for it.

    I was hoping this was going to be more Ultima VII like, with lock picks, magic lock/unlock, dungeons with traps and treasure instead of just pits of higher level enemies. Maybe these new treasure hunting scenes will do that, but it seems to have taken a back seat to pointless combat grinding.
     
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  15. Barugon

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    It's great that this game has a skill specifically designed to grief other players.
     
  16. Lazlo

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    How profitable gathering is kinda depends on what other things you're capable of that you're comparing it to, but it's definitely a lot more worthwhile than it was not too long ago. Mining in the usual places gives over 5x as much producer xp as it used to, and the market for ore, tin, etc, is still pretty good. Not sure about forestry, but beetle carapaces are still a very hot commodity, and suet is much more in demand ever since the addition of bard skills. I think it's fair to say that gathering, in general, is a reasonably rewarding use of time.

    Stealth gathering probably won't ever really be a thing because mobs that aren't near to whatever node you're going to will leash before you get there, and mobs that are near to whatever node you're going to will attack you when gathering makes you appear. Even if stealth were more effective, it still wouldn't be very relevant to gathering. It'd probably be possible to use sun, moon, and/or bard mez skills to avoid fights while gathering, but that might be more hassle than just killing stuff in most places.

    As far as being able to get into groups goes, bard skills are really useful. I pretty much never look for a group, so I have no firsthand knowledge, but it's hard for me to imagine that anyone with a decent amount of xp in bard skills couldn't get a group a decent amount of the time.
     
  17. Xiones

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    My suggestion, play another game...
     
  18. Barugon

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    I do. ;)
     
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