Solar TS analyzed.

[Umpa]

Solar lacking NWN True sight analyzed:

This is the Uber version, minus being a planar race is the only thing its lacking.
Solar with 3 conjuration feats, and good cleric domain.
1) What it can do, it can hit really hard 50-99hp crits and resist spells 50.
2) What it can't do, it can not cast true site, NS version very often, if ever, when server is not very laggy, but not lag free.
3) It can not spot any of the Nexus hipsters that are level 20 to 25, which is obviously a something that should be looked at.
4) It can not spot but 1 in 5 the hipsters in Shadow, if that.
5) It has yet to cast UV, which of course was something it used to have. I'm not sure if it has this spell.
6) The Solar will double cast blade barrier on the same target back to back, which is dumb and it will tell you barrier exists, and not work.
7) It never heals, ever, which it used to, the gated version of that guy does.
It casts earth quake which is dumb, why would a avatar with wings cast that spell, it does 0 damage to anything 20+, worthless.
9) It does cast one low level debuff, sometimes, if it feels like it. Which I do like.

Things that need to be fixed:
1) I'd like to replace one of the 2 blade wall spells with 1 more dispel, which would actually be useful. Bladewalls do little damage post level 20+ why would they use it. Are they for pking newbies? Balors get multiple Harms, perhaps we can up the greater dispells.
2) Up the level of spells based on its uberness, so level 30 dispel if it has all the feats, 28 if its 4, etc...
3) Get ride of earthquake, a avatar with wings should cast something more interesting, that doesn't agro things so far away without doing any damage. Nothing like an Earthquake on a group of zons on a ledge doing 0 - 1 point of damage but pissing off all 6 even ones that can't see us. Great for killing level 1 goblins though, 1 time.
4)Up the spot and listen to something reasonably high to replace the lost ability. It can not spot Hipster shadows in the nexus at this point, so that was quite a trade off there from all to almost 0 spots. Which crippled my cleric's solar and his 39 build. I'm guessing Balor's suffer from the same problem on spot. I've never played an evil character so I can't vouch here.
5)If your going to have them cast TS make sure they will cast it, perhaps they can prebuff when they are summoned.
6)They lost UV also with this change, fix that. They can literally stop dead in thier tracks in darkness. Again perhaps a prebuff if your taking NWN TS away.

7)Spot is the biggest issue and it hurt a lot of builds that do not get 8-10 skill points per, like the cleric builds. It is supposed to be an asset for investing in domain and 3 feats, perhaps have spot go up significantly with its uberness level. See suggestion 2. Even the non uber one needs some buffing, if it can't spot guys in the Nexus, I'd start there with the non uber and work your way up. Many hipster builds on the server have 70+ hide/MS, some are 100+ in these skills.


I hope this helps.
Umpa/Steel

[kingfatzo]

AMEN !

[-BannyD-]

1) I'd like to replace one of the 2 blade wall spells with 1 more dispel, which would actually be useful. Bladewalls do little damage post level 20+ why would they use it. Are they for pking newbies? Smile Balors get multiple Harms, perhaps we can up the greater dispells.

you are still forgetting...a Balor is not much of a threat once his harms are gone. his melee damage is negligable. the Solar, i believe, was meant to be the 'tank' dragon. its got reasonable high ab/ac and good dmg by sacrificing spells. i think before you start complaining about the nerfs done to your solar (the same nerf that effects -all- summons), you should ask for the Slaad to be buffed. it has the same crappy spells as the Solar, and does the same crappy melee damage as the Balor, the worst of two worlds eh? if its AC was higher than the rest i could see it being used more often..

[Umpa]

I'm not investing 50 hours to build characters to test balors and slaads. A buffed Slaad will woop on a buffed balor, I know this from beta. They are not tanks but they have really good damage output.

This subject, as the line said was Solars. 43ac is not that great for an uber solar, which is what mine has on my test build for this. He can take maybe a lanceress, but 2 will own it, unless its really lucky. If that lanceress double crits the solar will probably die. 43ac is not even close to the top of the AB range on a lanceress.

Balors have harm, which works on almost everything that doesn't have Neg energy immune up, or very high SR. They also cast debuffs, so its what you get, thats the trade off.

If one of the DMs want to level an evil and neutral build wizard for me, I'll be happy to compare and test them also.

[Celorn]

yah.. i agree with some things.. but still a cleric with a solar can get the solar pretty buffed up with UV and TS, 2 armor spells, weapon spell, elemental resistance, stat boosts, etc... (This really hurts the mage more since they can't cast all the nice buffing spells).

ie: My solar build does pretty well still (I soloed Alzaara with her recently @lvl34), when fully buffed. I can get the AC over 50, and ab near 50, SR at 50, spot around 70 and I don't even have 2 of the solar-boosting things I could have (domain and subrace), and I don't think I have taken epic focus:conj yet either.

The fact that DK's have a cut-off level means to me; I can't expect a lvl25 solar to be very competitive vs. CR30+ mobs, it is a great partner for when you can't find a party, and the slashing of the solar's sword is quite nice compliment to bludge/pierce weapons.

The modifications I'd like to see, would be:

1. healing at least once, (re-enabling the 'heal master' command)
2. more dispells,
3. remove earthquake and blade barrier, replace with a decent spell that can effect epic mobs.

Pretty much all casters that can get DK can cast TS and UV, so no need for the summon to cast it since they're often too brain-dead to realize they need to.

But in the end, I don't see what the need was to remove bioware TS from them in the first place, it's not like they were pwning SD's without breaking a sweat or anything, in the see-all respect, they were more of an early-warning sentry, or an 'it's safe to rest here in the shadow realm' guard. Hmm...when will bio-TS be removed from AO guards and TC walking saplings? ;] dragons/dragonshape??

[DeputyDog]

Shouldnt dragons have true true sight? There should be a difference between the spell and what a highyl advanced magical creature can do.

The problem with giving a player the truesight is that totally negates alot of pvp sneaking.

Its a toss up on what to do.

I do think the dragonknight summons will need a little beefing, but not sure what stats etc to beef:) Need more info.

[Nemesis Revised]

i think the dragonknights are pretty good. if you play solo, they're the best companions to have. and even more, if you're in a party who has another dragonknight, the amount of power is multiplied (not added to) take note: best companions. they could be better than some builds of the same level.

what i would suggest to these dragonknights is to get these upgrades when the caster reaches 30 levels of pure whatever

i.e. (30 cleric, 30 wizard, 30 sorc)

that's when they should start having the beefs. their weapons should turn into +6 enhancements, have additional abilities such as heal for solar, finger of death for baalor, stonehold or firestorm for slaad.

seriously mates. these solars/baalors/slaads are really good companions esp for cleric/whatever builds. power is so much synergised. if i would buff them up, i'd give the beef only to dserving casters that have 30+

so that the level 21 dragonknights are okay. the level 30 ones are deserved ones

[Umpa]

Most of the buffing comes from the feats taken for that purpose. Level of caster could be applied also. I'm not asking for a murderous dragon knight, even though the BG and PM seem to each have one. At level 30 of course.

I just think the base knight that had Real TS, should have spot needed to see hipsters that are level 25 base their same level, such as in a nexus. Its sad that 4 feats, and 1 cleric domain based solar, can't spot a shadow hipster in the nexus during combat.

If someone can buff, the thats up to them. A cleric buffing a solar and himself can easily take 2 and a half minutes without autoquicken.



Dragon guards in AO still have real TS btw, which is a bit of a bother, I'd expect the dragons to have it, but the guards disciples seems a bit much, if your removing to make gameplay for hipsters more fun, then you coul d visit those also.