Blasphemy.

Hrm...

Heh' date=' It doesn't really bother me, I just wanted to look at the spell. If its not important then I apologize for wasting time and space.[/quote']

They will probably not look at every skill/spell a player wants a look at, simply because the code has been very solid/balanced for several years now. UNLESS you bring proof that it is necessary, which more often than not should be imbalance issues. Saying that you want something changed won't get it changed. You'll have to make a solid case first, which I really do encourage you to attempt if you feel the spell is too powerful.

I'd not mind if path blasphemy were changed for another spell, say curse or deteriorate or dysentry or even insomnia. It hurts too few classes to be of importance in more than 10-15% of your battles.

The shaman blasphemy on the other hand is an entierly different thing. Shamans have it alot easier to land mal spells, since that's the only thing they got at their disposal. This means they will cut through -40 saves with ease. Up to -60 if they land deteriorate first. With ease. After that they'll be the ones running. Or at least that's what I had to do with mine.

Oh well' date=' if the staff thinks its fine the way it is - then I won't pick at it.[/quote']

Not a good way to be taken seriously.

You got caught in a pickle by Raarg, it happens to the best of us. Just take a day off or something, don't let one spell get to you or plant the seeds of animosity for the staff. Sure, it may be that you actually don't care, but it just doesn't look that way.

The forum is an evil tool man, it looks all nice and cosy, but it's really an evil evil mistress ready to take anything you post out of proportion or context.

WC

Lesson learned.

I dont see how blasphemy is worse than say a warrior getting disarmed and having his weapon sacced.

Because a warrior can carry a crapload of different weapons that he can use with comparable ability. A communer relies heavily on the ability to commune to heal, defend themselves, and attack and cannot just "rearm" from his inventory.

Not the same thing at all.

a warrior will not carry two of the same weapontype as he simply does not have the room in his inventory - you will need a canoe, recall, 1-2 vials or sancstaffs, maybe a staff/polearm and then two offensive weapons. Rest of the space goes for gyvel potions, which will even then not suffice in some battles. Now having one of those weapons destroyed leaves you completely vulnerable to any semiskilled opponent.

it is the complete same deal - on the top of it it leaves you with less defenses and attacks until you reequip another weapon - and blasphemy is cureable too.

Rare weapons are overrated. A bag full of smoking flails does everyone some good.

hehe - someone is addicted - just the work smoking makes u yearn

I dont think there is a problem with blasphemy at all. I played a shaman for a little bit and the occasional time I faced a communer it didnt make it a guaranteed win. Vs a Paladin it helps a lot, but they can out melee a shaman, and run away if need be, a cleric will have spell turning up, so half the time I blasphemied myself (ouch), and healers, well they are very hard to kill so even blasphemied they have a good chance to escape. Granted it does temporarily screw a communer, but this is why shamans have the spell, most classes have a way to screw other classs over, this is how you win pk's. I dont care what race/class you have, understanding of the game will always be the #1 factor. I am living proof. IMO I have rolled some good chars, I create them well, train them, conserve pracs etc etc etc, and I still get romped on the regular. The moral is, just because you lost, or got chased off, it doesnt mean there is something overpowered, maybe oh just maybe you screwed up somewhere?!?

a warrior will not carry two of the same weapontype as he simply does not have the room in his inventory - you will need a canoe, recall, 1-2 vials or sancstaffs, maybe a staff/polearm and then two offensive weapons. Rest of the space goes for gyvel potions, which will even then not suffice in some battles. Now having one of those weapons destroyed leaves you completely vulnerable to any semiskilled opponent.

it is the complete same deal - on the top of it it leaves you with less defenses and attacks until you reequip another weapon - and blasphemy is cureable too.

No one said blasphemy isn't curable. But can you carry extra "faith" in your backpack? Not really. Also, depending on race, you can carry a heck of a lot more in your inventory than what you described. I'm not sure how you are "completely vulnerable" after one weapon is destroyed (considering you have two others by your post, including one MORE defensive than the one disarmed). Additionally, blindness can be cured much more easily than can blasphemy, and by similar means in some cases, so by the same thinking (blasphemy is curable), you could sacrifice some of those gyvels in inventory for more weapons. Lastly, a communer often heavily sacrifices hit/dam-melee equipment for the saves to combat losing their faith. A warrior can't prevent disarming through their armor equipping and doesn't have to sacrifice their offensive output to protect against it. My point there being that a blasphemied communer is not only unable to use their prayers to fight, heal, cure, and defend themselves, but they also most likely don't have the melee setup to survive a straight up fight. A warrior doesn't have this concern other than not wanting to get spelled up. I would assume that any decent warrior is focusing on hit/dam and not saves as they should be outdamaging most communers fairly easily in melee.

Granted, I'm also not saying that blasphemy needs changing. It's just simply not the same thing as losing a weapon for a warrior.

EDIT: Bonus thought...disarm is also easily fixed...and quite bit easier to avoid than blasphemy since it might involve one or two items, or certain skills, where as the hope of dodging blasphemy is an accumulation of items and certainly not a given.

Wow, I feel like a guru. I keep on getting quoted!

But in all seriousness, there's a pretty big reason I fought while blasphemied all the time:

(Remember, this was before the big chance to saves made by Viri when I was playing Shendamarin; there weren't that many saves around at the time.)

I never had more than -20 svs mal when fighting against Ithamar (drow Syndicate shaman L) as Endelesten. I think my record against him was, in the end....4-2? We had some good battles. But regardless, it's not too surprising that I had it land on me all the time; I simply never bothered to get enough saves against it.

Wow' date=' I feel like a guru. I keep on getting quoted![/quote']

Don't worry, I still Despise you.

WC

Don't get me wrong, guys, I NEVER mind an honest discussion on almost any skill the pbase might feel concerned with, and I'm completely open to discussing blasphemy as well.

It just somewhat annoys me when people say they want a 'discussion', yet would prefer to just give slanted rhetoric about how 'powerful' the skill is, or how 'easy' it is to use, without really giving much detailed information about success chances to land, damage figures, balance, etc. etc. If you really want to have a discussion on blasphemy, I'll be happy to have one with you. I just want people to come into it with an open mind, making a good faith attempt to actually define the problem, explain the reason for it, and come up with a solution, with us.

I've given my opinion on the matter, I think it needs looked into. I want to see some others. So how 'bout it?

Dude...lol. You are missing the point.

We don't want just opinions. Everyone has an opinion, and it doesn't need to be based on reality.

We want facts and numbers from you, man. If you bring up something you think has a problem, you have to show us why, and where it is. There's cases, of course, where some things are clearly, blatantly problematic/buggy, and that's fine, but in things like this, please give us more fact based information

Did you consider that the shaman may have a heightened mal level?

Tyorik, Why do I have to consider that? For the second time. I am not complaining about anything.

Raargant, for the second time, I don't have numbers. I don't have logs. I have exprience. I know what has happened to me. I've seen it happen to others.

Alright, in my experiences as a 50 elf paladin vs a shaman with mastered mals ( as they should be), I have been blasphemied easily everytime. I roughly get -50-60 mal saves and pump the rest into hit/dam for an elf paladin. -60 mals should hold the spell for a duration. I don't expect it to last forever, but I don't expect to be blasphemied the first or second time either. Once it lands, I have two options. Stay and fight and get maled up more. Or flee and do a charge flee tactic. Usually I do that latter, why? Because of obvious reasons. I'd rather hit and run than stand there and get maled to death. I can usually last for some time, even get away. But in the event that I do fight, I am beaten down by mals eventually and taken out. In the event that I flee and take off - I wait for the blasphemy to fall and go back at it. Usually the same thing happens and I am blasphemied, left with the two options once more. Its a never ending cycle until eventually someone messes up and one of us dies. A shaman can outlast a blasphemied paladin or cleric for that matter because they are blasphemied and cannot do much.

This is what a shaman does. If they couldnt maladict you to heck and back noone would play them. Having blasphemy makes them stronger vs communers than others, just as Paladins are stronger vs evils than some neutral half-melees. I agree it sucks for the paladin, but again this is what shamans do. Maybe instead of going for quite a lot of mal saves and decent hit dam, go for a butload of hit dam. If you are pinned and have just spelled up, his blasphemy will fade before you lose anything important, so you only lose your offensive spells, but if you find a way to heal the blasphemy you will be fine. So he blasphemies you and you proceed to beat him up in combat, or if not, like you said, run away and try again another time.

Yes, it lands too easily. Or isn't getting it thru about -30mal with first attempt too easily? Mmmm... And then again, and again, and again... I'm glad I wasnt the only healer around, so I got rid of it quickly - just to get it again.

I remember talking to someone who had more than -110 mal saves on their character and them being blasphemied. The thing was though, they were deteriorated, cursed, phantom grasped a few times and I think a few other things and it still took the Shaman 5+ tries to actually blasphemy the person. And even when they were finally blasphemied, they cured it right away and ended up going on and off with two different Syndicates (was a while ago, so I don't remember who it was I talked to about that, but those saves are insane and it proves that it isn't a one shot hit to land but rather more of a long process of removing the saves of the person).

I have played more communer classes than anything and though I find Blasphemy does land fairly easy, it is not the end all of a fight. If you are a communer and get blasphemied, you are not immediately forced to flee. There are other ways to fight. You just will be gimped a bit.

There are also ways to get rid of blasphemy. Several in fact. Four I can think of off the top of my head. If you are a communer and you go into a fight fully prepared and you get blasphemied, you can A: Flee the fight and run around till Blasphemy wears off. B: Fight until you either beat them or fight till you are forced to flee.

Have I been blasphemied through -80 + mal? Yes. But it takes time to set up to that. I can guarantee you if the shaman lands deteriorate first, they will much easier land blasphemy. But Deteriorate from what I have seen is a B*tch to land. So it all balances out in the end. Show me statistics and I would be more liable to take any post about blasphemy seriously. Otherwise, suck it up and deal with it. Right now, pretty much all classes are fairely balanced.

Each class however will have their bane. For communers it is shamans. For spell casters it is people with silence. For Ogres, it is mages. Everyone has their weakness. Learn to work around those weaknesses and go on.