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I have another question! Does a Kinetic Knight's Shroud of Water improve at level 6 (as stated for a default kineticist) or level 8 (because Kinetic Knight has late entry to Shroud?) I ask again because Hero Lab gives me the bonus at level 6 and I assumed I wouldn't get it until level 8.
I reported the bug to Hero Lab/Lone Wolf development, and they said they would add it to their change log. I'm pretty sure I grok it now, though, and can do spell adjustments to manage what the number should really be.
Hi Temperans! Basically, i was saying that Shroud of Water/Elemental Bastion will give me +2 shield bonus with a light shield or a heavy shield, and since a heavy shield is already a +2 shield bonus, I should use a light shield for a slightly lesser ACP as my AC is the same either way. I think.
Awesome... so if I have this correct, I think this is the way things work: If I'm wearing +1 Full plate, 12 dex and a +1 light shield my AC is 23.
And if I used a heavy shield, for a +2 shield bonus, I'd start with a 24 and not change, since Shroud of Water won't go over +2 shield bonus as base - but it gives me an advantage in a lesser ACP. Then, every point of burn I spend on Shroud will increase my Enhancement bonus - at this level, to a maximum of +1 on top of the +2 shield bonus. I 4 levels (8, for a kinetic knight instead of 6) my shield bonus goes to +3 (which would take either a light or heavy shield to a +3 shield bonus. And I could still spend 1 point of burn to add +1 enhancement At 12 level, the shield bonus goes to +4 and I can spend up to 2 burn to add +2 enhancement (to a maximum of +5 totla) etc etc? I think I've got it but thought I'd post here to make sure :)
My Kineticist just hit 4th level and I'm confused by Elemental Bastion/Shroud of Water - this is exacerbated by the fact that HeroLab seems weird. Here's the situation - I have the following AC:
for an AC of 24. I feel like if I spend one point of burn, I should be able to increase my AC to 25 by adding a +1 Shield *or* Armor enhancement to either of my items, taking them to a +2 equivalent. However, HeroLab doesn't seem to want this to be the case. If I change my shield to a normal shield, however, I can then add a +1 Shield Bonus to it with a point of burn spent for Shroud of Water? So, is there a reason that Shroud of Water at level 4 doesn't seem to boost me when I'm wearing a magic shield and armor, or is that a Hero Lab bug? Also, does Shroud of Water need me to spend burn to power it, or does it only care about my current burn, like Elemental Overflow? And finally, how long does the boost to AC last? I assume it is until the burn is removed? Sorry if this has been answered before, a search failed to help me with this specific area!
Watch Beastmaster. See everything he does with his ferrets. Let your player's ferret do those things? But here's other things they can do: Steal/retrieve small items, deliver written messages, cut through ropes/straps. While it gets the ferret into combat, if you actually made it a tiny creature and gave it lots of AC due to size, you could allow it to distract an opponent that it shares a square with while not attacking. basically let it be a flanking buddy without actually attacking... high dex, tiny size, and have the 'distract' be complete defense for even more AC.
As an FYI, the reason most players hate Save or Die when they get hit with them, while they see nothing wrong with using them: In a game with 5 people playing, 4 PCs and one GM, every time a GM fails a Save or Die, the game continues for all 5 players. Every time a PC fails a save or die, they get to go make a sandwich and hope the rest of the party can finish off the bad guys. Sitting out for an hour or more of the game because of a failed save sucks. If your group can come up with ways for that *person* to stay engaged despite their character being useless, then this is less of an issue. A couple of bad saves can mean the difference between a 6 hour session of fun and a 6 hour session of misery. Regarding the fight, Time Stop->Prismatic Wall->Wish is a cool effect. However, I would say that a BBEG tossing wish as a first round effect seems odd. Is he so unsure of himself that he's willing to blow 25k before he even sees what's going on? I think opening with the Air Elementals and saving the Wish for when things go to heck would make slightly more sense. This also saves the Wish for a 'what I need at the time' spell.
The tip of the tail and the wings are very soft, but they didn't give much trouble. While there was a lot of flex, it took drybrushing and washes well.
Yes. To make this more clear, wherever the rune ends up on the eidolon, that's the forehead.
Here's the first thing I painted out of my Bones, the Pathfinder Red Dragon. That was a work-in-progress pic, before the base was finished or the last layer of ink/sealant. I've got several more painted now, but I don't have pics yet.
On its forehead.
You could always go for something like this: http://www.reapermini.com/figurefinder#detail/60134 Where the 'spell effect' is merely an open hand painted in a glowing scheme.
The area of effect of the spell is one object touched of up to 2 cubic feet/level. How do you calculate the volume of a burning fire? How do you determine the volume of material in a house? A stable? A fence? A boat? From a GM perspective, the only way this spell makes sense is if you adjudicate it as 'This spell shrinks one object touched, so long as that object fits inside the AoE of the spell'. I have no rules on how much volume individual components of a complex object take up, much less something as ephemeral as 'fire', and as such the only ruling that makes sense is to use the volume as a limiter on the *current* size of the object, not the *potential* size of the object.
If you play by the rules, the Moat House is a likely source of TPKs and player deaths. You've got three squishies in that group, and Fighters are pretty squishy at 1st level as well. It's not something that is expected in modern games, but retainers and henchmen can help a lot, and they are nice warm bodies to turn into replacement PCs when someone gets eaten by a frog or turned into a fine red mist from a staff of striking.
My players are asking what non-weapon proficiencies are. They can't find it in the book, but one player says they're part of AD&D. Is a 2nd Addition thing? Non-weapon proficiencies became a part of AD&D with the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide and the Wilderness Survival Guide. If you aren't playing with those two books (and I don't think you should), you should abstract all 'skill' checks to be stat tests with conditional modifiers.
I would be hesitant to suggest any of the 'B' series of modules to a person who is trying to get a grasp on 1st Edition AD&D. The 'B' series, including B2: The Keep on the Borderlands and B4: The Lost City (The Palace of the Silver Princess was B3) wwere all written for Basic D&D, not AD&D. The rules differences between Basic and Advanced D&D are significant enough that a newbie DM shouldn't try to run the conversion. If you're looking for a great 1st level AD&D Module, I'd suggest U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. The questions about initiative, morale, and weapon speed have been well answered. Just remember that Morale checks are only for monsters, the PCs choose at all times whether to fight, withdraw, flee, or surrender.
Since we started playing Pathfinder, these are the classes that were chosen for characters. Fighter x7
However, not all of those classes have been available to play in every campaign we've run.
From what Reaper's facebook thread on the subject says, the only paint that doesn't work well on them right out of the package is games workshop (citidel) paints I've got a collection of Citadel paints that goes back to 2001, and while I didn't use every bottle of paint I have on my 5 un-primed bones, I did use about 30 different colors... and none of them had any issues adhering to bare bones once washed (and on two models they had no issues adhering without being washed). maybe the one bone that I had beading on pre-wash would have taken Reaper paints without beading? But I don't foresee and issues with using my GW paints. Which is a good thing, because I've got several hundred pots of the stuff at this point.
It has nothing to do with fallibility. It has everything to do with the fact that this is a business. It is in Paizo's best interest that people play nice, and it is in their best interest for moderation to be decisive. Being publicly critical of moderation invites drama. Drama causes the moderators to work harder, for no benefit. It is not their job to banter over what is and isn't proper moderation. When you are on ENworld, RPS, or the Escapist, you are in their playground and play by their rules, and when you're in Paizo's you play by theirs. Having been a moderator elsewhere on the Interwebs, I have to say that Paizo's moderation is amazingly even-keeled and light-handed considering that the developers, designers, and even CEO are regular posters. It's common courtesy to discuss moderation issues in private, and escalate them if you're being actively wronged.
If you find moderation to have been heavy handed or mis-directed, then it is generally in your best interest to discuss that moderation politely, in private with the moderator. It's fine to disagree with moderators, but discussing it in a thread that is being moderated is asking for flame/trollbait. Nothing good comes from it. Since nothing good comes from it, deleting public criticism of moderation decisions is good moderating.
I bought a few 'test' bones models a few months ago to get used to them in preparation for Bones-mas. I picked up 5 (Minotaur, Gnoll, Ogre, Bugbear, Purple Worm), and started painting them straight out of the package. The first two had no issues with using GW paints on them straight from the package. On one (the Gnoll), I had beading of normal paint, so I washed it (and the other two) with dish soap. When I came back to them I had no issues with beading when using normal paints. When using an ink on bare plastic, it didn't react the way I would like, it almost acted like water on rain-x... it just slid around. I sprayed the model with primer and it inked perfectly well. So! If you're going to put base colors on the models before inking, you can skip priming entirely and go straight to the basecoat stage. If you wanted to ink the bare plastic, I would probably expect to prime it first (even if you wanted to keep it white), but depending on the ink and the model, it might work out for you. That said, for the majority (if not all) of the models, I don't think you'd want to ink over Bonesium-white, so you can safely basecoat without priming if you want to work up from white. There is still value in spray-priming black, grey, or whatever basecolor though, as a time-saver.
First, I hear that 'Agrax Earthshade' is the GW replacement for Devlan Mud, but I won't know how it compares until I buy some, and I still have three pots of Devlan Mud in my box. I also believe that Army Painter 'strong tone' ink is very similar to Devlan Mud. Devlan Mud was just the name of a GW ink, it's not anything special... it just happened to be well formulated, not quite black, not really brown so it shaded pretty much everything well. My suggestion to you would be to use any inks you like, with the knowledge that grey-brown inks work on 'everything'. Rich brown inks are good for golds and browns, colored inks work for complementary colors, black inks are great for armor, light brown inks are good for flesh tones, and oranges are nice for rust. For painting bones with inks, I would do this: 1) Wash the bones with dish soap and water, rinse well, let dry - I've had a few bones that would bead paint until they were washed because of mold release agents, so now I just wash them all. 2) Spray basecoat color if needed - here, if you're painting something that is mostly one color (like a scorpion, or a dragon), go ahead and spraypaint it with the base color you want if possible. (I bought an airbrush for this purpose, but you can just use aerosols). If you don't have the correct spray primer, then use a large brush and brush it on. 3) Paint the various bits that need to be painted - Bags, gloves, shirts, armor, weapons, teeth, etc... try to limit the number of colors on any one model unless it's a centerpiece, and paint the entire thing lighter than you want the final to be. 4) Let dry completely 5) Coat entire miniature in a light wash of Devlan Mud/Agrax Earthshade/Reaper Brown Ink/Army painter Dark Tone Ink 6) Let dry. This time will take longer 7) Touchup any highlights. For many models you can skip this step. 8) Seal with your preferred method (a quick spray of matte sealer is easiest) For most miniatures this works out to... Basecoat, slap 2-3 colors over basecoat, ink, seal. Works great for most monsters and mooks, looks good, and is fast. You can get really nice effects out of minimalist choices.
The game 'Dungeon Roll' just got Kickstarted. It's a press-your-luck dice game with a fantasy theme. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/michaelmindes/dungeon-roll-a-dicey-dung eon-delve $15 for a copy in the US. Canada/Worldwide are a little pricier.
This isn't actually a fair comparison. Fighters have armor training to increase speed, and can use the charge action. So the fighter should be moving 60 feet and attacking, or at worst, 40' (double move in heavy armor lower than level 7). This is also presuming the fighter isn't happy to sit at 50' and take full attacks with a bow, or doesn't have any magical help to get places faster. I will agree that the Eidolon is too close in effectiveness to a fighter to also have a pocket battlefield controller as his second character, but there's no need to make the fighter player look like a complete idiot to prove the point.
I have a little ways to go yet, but anybody want to recommend a reasonably lucrative alchemy specialization? (Doesn't have to be ridiculous, but something I could do a round or two of crafting with every day or two and sell at a steady profit.) I know I can only pick one so I want to have a piggy bank if I can manage. My other profession is Herbalism, if it's significant. With herbalism, I'd probably say to go Flask spec. My alchemist is a transmuter, which means every time I transmute gems or use my living steel cooldown I have a small chance of getting a huge payday. If your other profession was miner or jewelcrafter, I'd still say go transmute, but with herbalism, you can go Flask. My favorite alchemy moneymaker right now is to turn Golden Lotus into Potions of Luck. Those seem to be a steady 20-30g profit each in relatively large numbers.
Yeah, for new players it's a little confusing... Buying basic flight training lets you fly in Outland only, at 150% flight speed. You can buy two flight speed improvements, bringing your flight speed up to 280% and 310%. To fly in Azeroth, you need the Flight License. This lets you fly pretty much everywhere. Notable exceptions are the Draenei and Blood Elf starter zones. To fly in Northrend, you need Cold-weather flying. I believe Cataclysm zones only require Azerothian flying, but I'm not certain about that. Finally, to fly in Pandaria you'll need a Pandarian flying license, which is only available at level 90. They make you walk until then. And of course, all of these things are relatively pricey, so your wallet feels it every time you upgrade.
prove it... When discussing rules in the terms 'Nowhere in the rules does it *NOT* say that I can save my feats and spend them when I want to!' is that that falls down the slippery slope of playing a game where only the expressly forbidden is denied. 'No where in the rules does it say I can't...' leads to ridiculous extremes fairly quickly. Therefore, by RAW interpretations, you limit yourself to what the rules actually say you CAN do. RAW interpretations are not a permissive rule set. If you want to discuss Rules as Intended, I think it is clear that the existence of mechanics that allow you to retrain feats/relearn spells/swap class features clearly show that the intent is that you can get better/different abilities later, but you pick your class abilities as soon as you get them. Otherwise, as described, you get rogues that never take rogue talents, fighters that don't take any feats until the criticals are opened up, etc etc. But neither of things really matters with your barbarian. Your OP was that your GM claimed the build was 'too strong' not 'too Cheaty Mc Cheaterson', so there's little reason to nitpick and error-check *this* build. Ask your GM what the specific issues are, and adjust accordingly. Your GM may be perfectly happy with saving up feats and spending them at 9th, but just hate the Invulnerable Rager archetype. I don't think trying to game the rules is going to get you what you want.
I'd look at Reaper's Hellborn models if you're willing to paint/convert. I do not believe you will find a pre-painted mini that is even close to your desired specs, and the Hellborn minis aren't close either. The best I can recommend is something like the Tiefling Fighter or Tielfling Blademaster from WotC, but I haven't found anything that hits your high points. If you're willing to give up the beard and hooves, and can do a simple weapon swap, you could paint this up like a druid: Pros: simple weapon swap, you can paint the banded mail to look like leather, he's got a giant animal skin for a cape, so that helps the hide armor idea. This guy comes with several options, including a staff that makes a serviceable club and an arm that could easily be modded to have a shield on it. It'd look a little weird, and he's got the 'leather duster with no shirt' look that is pretty polarizing. Good luck! There's not a huge variety of tiefling models out there.
Stats are weird. For Warlocks you want: Intellect, always intellect. This is by far the most important, it deals with mana and damage. After Intellect, you want 'Hit'... at least until you can hit everything. When you're hitcapped, more hit is useless. Hit is awkward until you're max level, but if you're missing a lot, look for more Hit. As Destro, after you've maxxed intellect and then are hitting all the time, you want Critical Strike. Finally, you also use Mastery and Haste. Stamina is always good for the extra health, but it isn't really a critical stat for you. Anything with Spirit, Expertise, Attack Power, etc etc is for someone not you. Luckily, as a cloth wearer, most things you find are obviously either for you or a healer, but rings/weapons/trinkets/necklaces/cloaks are broader options... on those, anything that has Stamina and Int but *NOT* spirit, is normally itemized for ranged casters and fair game, but there will be times when leveling that an off-spec or even off-class piece of gear is an upgrade for you. In cases like that, roll greed on it and be happy to wear it until you find better. My warlock wore healing priest shoulders for months during cataclysm, ad I couldn't get my heroic shoulders OR the tier piece to drop for ages.
I think Mists is probably the most casual friendly expansion. Great quests, lots of things to do other than grind heroics and LFR, great graphics, the quests are some of the best they've done yet. If you've ever liked WoW, and aren't a hardcore PVP/PVE top-tier guy, then I think you'd get real fun out of MoP.
Hey everyone! Just dropping a line that early-bird pricing for Geekway to the West is coming to a close in a couple of days. Geekway is a 4-day, 24-hour open boardgaming convention in St. Louis, MO. Attendees who preregister get a free boardgame, and there's several big events... tons of game giveaways, a huge boardgame library to check out games from, and various tournaments and events. If you love boardgames and are nearby, it's a great time. We expect there to be 500+ people there this year.
Just to throw this out there... HP is a pure abstraction. How do you handle called shots when the HP system says 'until you take your last HP of damage, you are 100% combat effective'? You'd have to make rules for dropping weapons (hands), losing mobility (legs), losing spells/skills (head), losing flight (wings), losing natural attacks (tails, claws) etc... And then, HP are no longer a magic pool of ablative armor. Considering that a 'hit' can take off 50 hp and be described as a 'scratch' or 'becoming winded', it seems that 'target the wings' fails simply bacause the HP system can't handle being anything other than ablative armor unless you're willing to add a very complex re-write to the entire system.
If I may offer a suggestion, you should start out with making 4-6 very basic tiles that will fit together on your table. For these tiles, a layer of mdf with a piece of 2" foam insulation on top of it will be ideal. the 4-6 tiles should be able to be laid out on your gaming table in a 2x2 or 2x3 layout. These tiles should be painted/flocked however you like, but the more basic the better, because these will be your base pieces. Paint the foam, flock it, then, the hard part, grid it after the flocking. Once you have these, you have a game table. For the keep, if money and time are no object, invest in Hirst Arts Molds, and make the pieces fairly modular. This will allow you to reuse components and build new keeps as you add components... I'd make each room be a separate piece, so you can assemble them as needed. Use 1" floor tiles for everything, and you avoid the need for a grid on these pieces. Then, once you have a gridded, modular surface, and gridded, modular rooms and halls, you start adding more pieces. You can make hills, mountains and cliffs out of 2" foam and place them as needed. You can get large rocks, statues, trees, and other terrain pieces and add them as needed. Purchase plastic sheeting of brick roads, paths, and other ground effects. Buy model houses that fit the scale. Then, you can start making custom tiles. This is why you started with 2" foam on the base pieces... you can carve rivers, lakes, ravines, pits, sink holes, beaches, and anything else up to 2" down into the new tiles, and work them into the other tiles to make literally any combination you want. This is a huge endeavor, but the more modular you make your build at the start, the more use you'll get out of things. The only way I'd ever make 'one-off' pieces at this level would be if I was being compensated for my time and building things for a convention demo game.
I'm not certain what you're trying to make, but I can say that if you're sculpting terrain pieces (ravines, hills, mountains, cliffs), then you are going to want to use pink or blue foam insulation board. It's strong enough to hold shape while able to be worked with reasonable tools. If you want things on hard bases, look into CD's. They are perfect for perfectly flat, hard surfaces. If you need shapes other than 'round' then you want to use some type of thin hardboard. Stay away from 'real wood', as anything with a grain will split, swell, warp, or otherwise not do what you want. MDF/Chipboard or other formed materials will almost always be superior to real wood. Depending on how you want your material on the surface to act, you may or may not be able to slap a coat of poly on it. If you want a flocked/grass surface, you will not want to poly it, you'll want to saturate it with watered down PVA and then coat it with a flat sealer. If you have some ideas of what you're trying to build, and how you envision trying to make it, I'm sure the board can give you some great pointers as well as some pitfalls to look out for.
Serious question time here, and I think the answer I get will help me understand a lot more about where all of your current threads/posts are coming from. How do you 'win' D&D/PF? How do you 'lose'? I have never felt that TTRPGs were games with winners and losers, ever. I think this disconnect may explain many, many things.
From level 15-70 no one should ever care about your DPS, unless the group is wiping. If the group is wiping, though, it's likely not a lack of DPS, but stupid DPS (bringing in adds, standing in the bad, etc). On occasion you may see someone post damage meters. If bosses died, ignore these. On other occasions someone may say 'hey post damage meters'. If they do this, they have their own damage meteres, know they are on top of them, and want someone else to link them so they can brag. As a tank and a healer (I play both), I'm much happier when people move where they need to move, handle adds, click what they need to click, interrupt spell casts, cleanse debuffs, and otherwise do things that make the fight smoother rather than faster. This all causes your DPS to drop, but that's ok. People who maximize DPS stand in the fire for that last second to not interrupt a nuke, they ignore debuffs, they don't counterspell, they don't crowd control, they alpha strike early, drawing aggro, and otherwise do things that are purely selfish. Some tanks and healers are prima donnas and will make fun of you for doing less DPS than them, or yell at you for doing something like standing in the fire or drawing aggro. Try to ignore them. If someone is offensive, report them. The feel for dungeons gets slightly more serious as you get into later content... the fights are a little more complex, and DPS has more things to do than 'nuke'. At those levels, hopefully you'll run dungeons with nice people and not jerks, but really, if someone's a jerk, ignore and move on, don't let it stress you out.
In response to Aranna and Bill Dunn, I thought it was obvious that my position was one of ridiculousness. Given a ridiculous situation, it's possible to completely break WBL. It requires a capricious GM and complicit characters, but it can be done. This is my thesis statement though... the crafting rules are purposely loose, allowing far more leeway than an ironclad and balanced set of rules should ever allow, because they presume an active and engaged GM exerting control (GM fiat). I never quite understand the 'GM fiat is BAD' component of the gaming world. Bad GM fiat is bad, but good GM fiat is amazing. The entire purpose of the GM is to adjudicate things in a way that make the game more fun for everyone at the table. GM's exert control in encounter design, off the cuff circumstance bonuses, NPC reactions, availability of time, resources, adventure hooks, etc. All of that is fiat. I wonder sometimes if there are players that would prefer a robot GM that would handle all the mechanics. Given that a good GM makes all of these critical game decisions already, I fail to see how the rules saying the GM should also make these decisions with regard to custom spell research, custom magic item creation, and custom races is a 'bad thing'. I for one prefer a game in which the rules let me make these as long as the GM vets it, which is why I have a disconnect with shallowsoul... I don't foresee a crafting system that is both ironclad so that it no longer requires editorial control by the GM *and* allows you to make truly custom items. I feel that those two design choices are at odds with one another inherently, and you need to pick one or the other. I'm willing to be shown a system that proves me wrong, but one that just adds some arbitrary XP cost is not it.
You can put together a fairly compelling argument. Let's imagine a robot GM who gives a party of 5 12th level PCs their WBL in stuff they can't use... let's say diminuitive +1 suits of hide armor. One PC is a crafter with all crafting feats. The 5 PCs agree to sell off all the armor, split the money equally, and buy what they want. The crafter tells the 4 PCs he'll make them anything they want for worth up to 72,000 gp for their share (54k), and they all excitedly place orders. Crafter then takes all his money and craft what he wants. Before selling: Each PC has 108,000 gp in useless gear.
The party starts with RAW WBL of 108,000 gold, the non-crafters end up with 72k and the crafter ends up with 252k. This is why if you are following pure RAW you shouldn't ignore things like 'can only sell for half price', because when you pick and choose RAW to ignore and setup ridiculous situations as starting points, things quickly get out of hand.
Actually, by RAW, a crafter can never sell an item for over 50% of the cost. It's pretty solidly written in black and white that selling for over 50% is against the rules. The rules:
Trade goods are the exception to the half-price rule. A trade good, in this sense, is a valuable good that can be easily exchanged almost as if it were cash itself.
While I think the rules could be better, I would not say they are proven to be broken. I have never had an issue with them. As the GM I control the time and money available for crafting. I also control any custom items that are asked for. I find it interesting that you think the GM doesn't keep AC under control. GM's control a player's access to most equipment through multiple methods. However, even granting that the players have access to all crafting feats and a magic-mart of all possible items, and the gold/time to spend on them, and the splatbook rules to get more AC, the GM *still* controls the effects of AC by saying what monsters the PC faces. The GM determines if monsters flank, have magic weapons, aid another, use brilliant energy, grapple, target touch AC, etc. All of that is under the GM's domain. It's the GM's job. Much like giving players gold and time to craft, and for non-standard items, giving editorial control over the item. The beauty of the crafting system is it says 'you can make all these hundreds of items easily, or you can make something awesome and unique that you work with your GM to decide the details on'. As long as the player is looking for 'awesome and unique' and not 'bypass sanity and ignore built in limitations', the system works AMAZINGLY well. If you want a system that is ironclad and never needs oversight, then you should write that system up from scratch and present it for peer review, because it isn't something that will work with a couple of tweaks to the system. None of the suggestions I've seen have created an ironclad system, just a more fiddly one.
For a total newbie to dungeons, here's what you can expect. At level 15+ you click on the 'green eyeball' in your info bar and open up the Dungeon Finder. Select 'random dungeon' and set your role to 'DPS' (the dagger). Do not click the green flag, that says you're willing to be party leader. Once inside, there will be 5 people. One has a Shield. that's the tank, and you want to follow their lead. One is a Plus sign, that's the healer. The other two are like you, and are DPS. You're ranged DPS which means in the vast majority of cases you want to stand about 20 yards back from the fight. During a fight NEVER start attacking a monster unless it's already been hit by the tank. The tank will 'pull' the group and start hitting them. Pick one of them and look at it... when it starts to get status effects and lose some HP, you can kill it. If it's one target, just blast it with spells. If there are multiple targets, you want to use your AoE attacks. When items drop, you will get a chance to roll on them. If items are Green, *always* roll greed (the coins) or disenchant. If the item is Blue or Purple and you want to wear it, roll Need (dice). If it is Blue or Purple and it 'Binds on Equip' (as opposed to Binds on Pickup) listen to the group and follow their lead on how they want to handle those. Most groups these days still roll need on those if they can, but it's better to lose the item on a greed roll than get labeled a Ninja. If you ever get a monster on you your first thought is going to be 'run away!' Do not do this. If a monster gets on you, run to the tank, and sit there. don't attack, just wait until it stops hitting you. Your tank will appreciate this very much. If you see your health going down rapidly for no reason, look on the ground. Are you standing in rocks, smoke, red stuff, green stuff, purple stuff, or fire? Move! Your healer will appreciate this very much. At level 18 you can create a soulstone. This is a self-resurrection that lasts for 15 minutes. If you're afraid you'll die, you can cast this on yourself before then, but it's better used as a 'battle rez'. If you see the tank or the healer die in a fight, stop what you're doing immediately and cast soulstone on their corpse. They'll be able to resurrect themselves in battle and keep fighting. Finally, sometimes you'll see monsters that have 'Skull' or 'X' or 'Moon' over their head. Skull means 'kill me first, seriously.' X means 'kill me second'. Moon means 'do not attack me for any reason because I am going to be turned into a sheep or sapped'. Sometimes other markers will be used, but if so those will be explained. Hopefully. As a Warlock, it's ok to cast your curses/dots on things other than skull, but all your fillers (shadowbolts) should go to skull. Oh, and one last thing... Don't ever cast Fear, Howl of Terror, Death Coil, Mortal Coil, or anything else that makes monsters run away in a dungeon, ever, unless explicitly asked to do so by the tank. If you glyph your fear so the monster cowers instead of flees, you can let this slide a little. At certain times you may be asked to Crowd Control a monster via Fear, Banishment, Control Demon, or Seduction. If asked to do this, try your best.
You've got 5 pet options. For dungeons your best bet is always the Imp. It gives a nice stamina boost to the group, does good ranged damage. You can use the Felhound if there are magic spells that need to be removed and it's ok to use melee dps. The Succubus should only be used for crowd control (seduction). You should never use the Voidwalker in dungeons. If you're demonolgy, you have the Felguard... but it should generally be benched in favor of the Imp as well.
I've got a level 90 Warlock (Alliance side) and would be happy to answer questions, or point you in the right direction at least. Also if you see me on the Horde side (Ursamon/Troll Druid), I'll be happy to 'boost' you through a dungeon so you can see them. What this means is we'd go in, you'd pick up the dungeon quests, and stay behind me as I kill things. I'd explain the dungeon mechanics as we went, you loot the bodies and get some free XP and treasure, and possibly some really nice items, and get to see what a dungeon is like without worrying about being a drain on the other 4 people. Most dungeons are relatively straightforward in the fights at low level, but some of them are easy to get lost in.
I really enjoyed the goblin start. Then I got thoroughly lost in Ogrimmar. Probably lost an hour trying to find my way out to the contacts. Learning capital cities is a pain. I've got Stormwind down to where I could navigate it blindfolded. Ironforge is a giant circle and makes sense. Darnassus is big, confusing, and everything looks the same. I hate Darnassus with a passion, but it at least is not the Exodar. The Exodar is extremely confusing. Horde side, the city that makes the most sense to me is Undercity. Orgrimmar is big and sprawling, and it's on multiple levels that confuse the snot out of me. Thunder Bluff isn't bad, though. Silvermoon is beautiful but I don't spend any time there. I'm certain that my deep understanding of Stormwind comes from years of it being 'home' and I'll eventually learn Orgrimmar, but in my mind it's far too confusing of a city for it to be the capital.
I turned the 'extra character' into a theme: Warlocks: Hexx, Tormentt, Pactt
I started with 'Hexx' back in BC, and then just kept going with the concept.
Back for more advice. I have unlocked the chance to select a specialization or something like that. I think my options are affliction, destruction, and demonology. My playstyle to date is to let the voidwalker tank while I hit the foe with a DoT and then a shadow bolt or two. If I get hit or things drag on a bit longer, I put on the health drain. Which would be best? Now that I'm not on my phone, I'll give you a little more info here... first off, I was Affliction for most of Burning Crusade, Demonology for most of Lich King, and Destruction for most of Cataclysm, and have stayed Destruction for Pandaria. Affliction utilizes soul shards and drops multiple Dots on targets and does Shadowbolt/Drain Life filler. It's very sustainable. Demonology has had a lot of changes since I last played it, but now you cast spells to build up demonic power, have access to the Felguard pet, and can turn into a powerful demon form. When I played demonology it was an amazing spec for taking down huge groups of monsters, but tended to have some downtime as you were waiting on cooldowns or regaining health often. I'm not sure how it plays now, though. Destruction has become my preferred spec, primarily because I'm lazy and like the ability to burst on demand. The rotation is very simple... you throw out your basic fire spells (Immolate, Incinerate, Conflagrate) and build up burning embers. When you need to do tons of damage, you throw out 3 chaos bolts. You've got a simple group rotation (Rain of fire then a Fire-and-Brimstone powered Immolate, followed up with Conflag and Incinerate). This site has a fairly basic explanation of the specs and how you can use glyphs/talents: http://wowraids.org/warlocks/ Honestly though, whichever one looks most interesting tkae now, and then at 30 take the second most interesting one.
Back for more advice. I have unlocked the chance to select a specialization or something like that. I think my options are affliction, destruction, and demonology. My playstyle to date is to let the voidwalker tank while I hit the foe with a DoT and then a shadow bolt or two. If I get hit or things drag on a bit longer, I put on the health drain. Which would be best? If you like DoTs, go with Affliction. If you'd rather blast it with huge spells, destro. If you want powerful demons and the ability to turn into one, demo.
Hey all, I'm thinking seriously about investing in an airbrush setup, but don't have any local resources to test equipment out. I've tried testors propellant cans and a basic single-action. It was ok for doing some stuff, but in the end I hated dealing with propellant, a leaky crappy plastic brush, and etc and so forth. I'm looking for a setup that is small, unobtrusive, not too loud, has a good beginner-quality brush (dual-action preferably). I need a compressor, regulator, brush, and all the assorted tubing, connectors, paint pots, thinner, etc. I want to use it inside, and I'd prefer to use water-based acrylics but I'm flexible on that. If anyone has some advice on brands, or even better a good kit, I'd love to hear it. This will be primarily for painting larger models (dragons, terrain, Cthulhu), but if I get good enough, I'd love to use it on smaller things too. Thanks!
I wonder about these campaigns where characters are dying so often this is an issue. How many people actually play in games where PCs are dying so often we need a rule to make them permanently dead after a while over and above the current ways to make someone permanently dead? Back in 1st edition, I had a character die 4 times and get brought back all 4. character was a 'rogue' and got hit by multiple save-or-dies via traps and curses. His 5th death was a permanent death with no chance of save and no possibility of resurrection. This was by far the most 'dead' I've ever had a character. In Pathfinder (at least this seems to me) most deaths either come about from bad luck, or there's a TPK about to happen. I've never felt like I needed to go back to System Shock and Resurrection Survival to want to keep my PCs alive, though. Perhaps if I was at a table where we had infinite wealth and time, AND died constantly, this discussion would make more sense?
Can anyone recommend a good solo-friendly, fairly simple starter race/class combo for each side? I'm not new to MMOs exactly, but I've only played City of Heroes and it was very casual-friendly. Classically, the friendliest classes are pet classes... Hunter and Warlock especially. For race, the best ones are: Panda (choose horde/alliance later)
I pick these because they're the newest and so have really nice 'new style' starter zones. If you aren't interested in those races, I am a huge fan of the Undead starting zone for Horde, and I'm also fond of the Human start zone. But any of them will work. |