Chernobyl_Glow wrote:
My good man this actually proves my point. You're flat wrong. We have approximately 15, 40 level characters with 10 RDD. They can't all have been poor builds.
- glow -
Actually they COULD have been poorly built, and even IF they weren't poorly built they were obviously poorly played OR it could be that we don't know what builds are what. The only strength builds I've seen frequently running around in AO that aren't pure fighters or RDD dragons are Bakura and Exile. And those were tensor builds that didn't get the AB to kill any high AC builds. They were tough but not nearly as tough as what's possible.
And then there were the ftr/bard/RDD's, Cereal Killa and wakefield(i think), who have always dropped the hammer on people and you know that too. BUT you hardly ever see them, but Killer AB on those two that's for sure. There you go, there's 2 10RDD builds that really hurt people's feelings.
Bargeld wrote:cRaZy8or5e wrote:The 127 cap (where did this idea come from) is a myth. The engine goes far beyond that. Tested by mining, reported on by linux I believe in other threads. Get it out of your head, 127 cap doesn't exist!
A cap is a cap to the skill value of the individual player at any given time. If a toon has bonuses up to 141, their skill from the purposes of the engine is still 127. They get hit with a bard, they drop from 141 to 133, still from the engine's standpoint you have 127. Hit em with a dirge, -6 to abilities, meaning -3 to the skill... down from 133 to 130. The engine still stores their skill @ 127.
Once you get to a roll it takes that 127 and then adds and subtracts the CIRCUMSTANCE modifiers.
This is straightforward to me. If linux has tested and comfirmed that 127 is not the cap that a characters skill has before going into a roll, I would ask that maybe he confirm or deny my proposition, because it makes complete programming sense to me. The final values can change once the roll has occurred based on those 'circumstance' modifiers and can go above your 127. That doesn't mean that the toon had higher than 127 going into that roll.
No it doesnt'. According to testing by mining, a 150 hider always hid from a 130 spotter. And vice versa, a 150 spotter always saw a 130 hider. Now if there was a 127 cap, that wouldn't happen because circumstance modifiers should allow for an equaling of the playing field making it about the same either way. In fact it should have shown that a HiPSer would be able to hide regardless once combat was engaged due to the circumstance modifiers being in the HiPSer's favor. However that was not the case. I'd have to have Mining give exact details about what circumstance modifiers were included in the testing (ie light emitting objects, environmental factors, etc).
BUT back to your PRC. Oh yeah I said that its the hardest to play and the weakest of the PRC's. So we're in agreement there. You don't like that an assassin has to take 5 feats to have a chance at maintaining their stealthiness? Ummm they're a class who's best abilites are dependent on stealth. You don't have to build for stealth but if you want to be able to use their cool tricks, you better build for stealth. Try a small stature creature and metagame like Mcninja, see what you can come up with. Assassins are not really designed with being some sort of offensive juggernaut, so trying to compare them to the other PRC's is silly. They're ambushers, and as such you need the element of surprise to be effective. IF you want an assassin to be an offensive juggernaut, you have to forget about its death attack and stealth and become some sort of dex tank. It's actually not half bad, though as stated its not much better than a rogue (though the ethereal abilities can be nice to get outta trouble). The only faction with more build options than SL is RK, from a build perspective only. Once you throw in races, RK is actually a bit more limited than SL. Michael Jackson the only player in SL who can roll a mage/sd? Why not try a non sd mage? Magic users can kill everything, though mages do require that a person realize they're very likely goin to take a dirt nap. But if they can get circumstances to work in their favor, they can kill anything.
I'm sorry you have a lack of motivation for building in your faction. I think the lack of motivation and the demoralizing effect of having things nerfed has clouded your ability to see new and better solutions to your faction/gaming challenges. The best thing to do is go play in another faction. Get a different perspective and have fun with something new.