[Spr Nec][HND][HRO] Surrit, Conduit of Power

Edoras · **Posted:** Tue Oct 07, 2014 5:58 am

Surrit was a great deal of fun to play, and I certainly enjoyed every minute of it. I certainly went rather inactive with him over the last half a year or so, however, so thanks to the Imperials for giving him one last hurrah before he died of age-death first. Sorry that I couldn't come out with bigger guns blazing, I didn't have the time to dedicate towards a proper PvP kit.

Honestly, I can't even begin to think of all the people that I loved interacting with on Surrit, because it was so long ago and there were so many. Basically, thanks to everyone who RPed with him, PKed with him and against him, and all that.

In recent past I just haven't had the drive or time to play SK on the level that I prefer to play it on, and that usually ends up meaning that I don't play at all. I can't stand leaving RP storylines open, or PvPing without some level of prep behind it, and both of those things just require a lot of invested time. This game still has such great potential, and is by far the best mud I've ever played in my life, I just can't seem to find the proper timeframes to play it. I may try to find some time to fit that in, but as it stands that proves difficult given SK's active style, which is honestly the biggest thing I like about it.

Code:

This half-foot tall sprite has maroon, leathery wings that sprout off of
his body at odd angles, making it seem amazing that he can manage to fly at
all with them.  Grotesque dark-red streaks on his wings and arms pulse with
every heartbeat, as if only a thin layer of skin was preventing his innards
from spilling out onto the ground at any given moment.  Jagged teeth are
revealed when he grins, and his mouth is covered with encrusted drool which
he occasionally licks with a pasty tongue.  His hands and feet are gnarled
and deformed.   

oOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOo
 o [Attributes] Surrit, Conduit of Power                                     o
 o===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===o
 o    Status: Grand Master(1)   Race: Sprite           Class: Necromancer    o
 o       Age: 192                Sex: Male              Size: Tiny           o
 o Alignment: Diabolic     Handiness: Left handed   Religion: Pantheist      o
 o      Born: Long Shadows 5, 1157                  Birthday: 75 days        o
 o===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===o
 o       STR: Puny               INT: Genius             WIS: Clever         o
 o       DEX: Nimble             CON: Healthy            CHA: Influential    o
 o===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===o
 o Carrying capacity: 18 items with a maximum weight of 120.0 pounds.        o
 oOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOo

[HP: 43%] [ME: 94%] [PE:100%]
> 
score

 oOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOo
 o [Scores] Surrit, Conduit of Power                                         o
 o===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===o
 o    Status: Grand Master(1)   Race: Sprite           Class: Necromancer    o
 o   Kingdom: Wastes        Religion: Pantheist                              o
 o  Tribunal: The Black Hand (Member)                                        o
 o===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===o
 o     Coins: zero                                                           o
 o  Carrying: 0/18 items                    Load: 0.0/120.0 pounds           o
 o===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===o
 o    Health: Wounded         Mental: Pulsating     Physical: Fresh          o
 o Attribute points: 0        Wimpy:  20 percent    Mode: Kill/neutral       o
 o===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===o
 o You are standing.                                                         o
 o===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===o
 o You have earned 41 loyalty tokens with this character.                    o
 o You can spend 10 loyalty tokens for this character.                       o
 o You have 71 unspent loyalty tokens in total.                              o
 o===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===o
 o You are over two-thirds of the way to the next level.                     o
 o You have played 644 hour(s) so far.                                       o
 oOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOoOOOo

[HP: 43%] [ME: 94%] [PE:100%]
> 
spells

Innate    - detect magic        (mastered)    faerie fire         (mastered)    
            faerie fog          (mastered)    
Amateur   - armor               (mastered)    cause light         (mastered)    
            death shroud        (mastered)    
Novice    - blindness           (mastered)    chill touch         (mastered)    
            continual light     (mastered)    deafness            (mastered)    
            detect hidden       (mastered)    detect invis        (mastered)    
Initiate  - animate dead        (mastered)    cause serious       (mastered)    
            fly                 (mastered)    identify            (mastered)    
            sleep               (mastered)    weaken              (mastered)    
Apprentice- curse               (mastered)    infravision         (mastered)    
            poison              (mastered)    shield              (mastered)    
            slow                (mastered)    teleport            (mastered)    
Journeyman- cause critical      (mastered)    dispel magic        (mastered)    
            feeblemind          (mastered)    plague              (mastered)    
Veteran   - fear                (mastered)    locate object       (mastered)    
            summon              (mastered)    vampiric touch      (mastered)    
Expert    - control undead      (mastered)    detect aura         (mastered)    
            recharge            (mastered)    rift                (mastered)    
Mentor    - energy drain        (mastered)    spell ward          (mastered)    
Master    - finger of death     (mastered)    

[HP: 43%] [ME: 94%] [PE:100%]
> 
skills

Amateur   - dagger             (very good)   siegecraft         (not learned) 
            sling              (fair)        staff              (very good)   
            scrolls            (mastered)    staves             (mastered)    
            swim               (superb)      wands              (mastered)    
            taslamaran tongue  (mastered)    uxmaln tongue      (mastered)    
            zhensh tongue      (mastered)    empire tongue      (mastered)    
            aghelian tongue    (mastered)    sylvan tongue      (superb)      
            firmyrn tongue     (mastered)    deep tongue        (mastered)    
            taslamaran writing (mastered)    uxmaln writing     (mastered)    
            zhensh writing     (mastered)    empire writing     (mastered)    
            aghelian writing   (mastered)    sylvan writing     (mastered)    
            firmyrn writing    (mastered)    
Novice    - meditation         (mastered)    
Initiate  - dodge              (superb)      
Apprentice- self defense       (not learned) 
Journeyman- trance             (mastered)    
Expert    - leadership         (mastered)    scribe             (mastered) 

Oh wait, I almost forgot. From a mechanics standpoint, necros really are too weak on the power scale to be worth their drawbacks. I wouldn't personally recommend necro as a class to anyone who is looking to be successful in PvP, because they require more work just to be on par with any other class, and even then they provide less utility and more weaknesses than all other casters. I'm not saying necros can't be good: I'm just saying that other classes can do their job better now that animates got hit with the big fat nerf bat. I don't think that any class has had their skillset hit as hard as necros have over the last 9 years I've been playing, and I think that's a really negative thing for the game overall. I remember when a necro attacking a city used to -mean- something, even if he was alone. Necros just aren't classes to be feared anymore.

woahboy · **Joined:** Wed Dec 11, 2013 8:53 pm **Posts:** 503

I've never seen any evidence of animates being remotely useful since the nerfs. The animate spell might as well be removed. As it stands, they seem to be the hodor of mage classes. Get 3-4 controls, go flex on stuff. They have zero utility and zero defense.

They can still be terrifying, because controls will wreck people, but it's a very 1-dimensional and boring class, much like warlock,

Edoras · **Posted:** Tue Oct 07, 2014 6:57 am

At least warlock has ranged lol spells like fireball and can one-shot non-MR race casters with magma spray.

woahboy · **Joined:** Wed Dec 11, 2013 8:53 pm **Posts:** 503

Edoras wrote:

can one-shot non-MR race casters with magma spray.

I cringe every time I see this happen. Makes elf/delf/etc a bit more worth their weaknesses though. My human sorcerer saved vs a fireball a couple weeks ago, and took 31% damage. With not -terrible- CON, either (13-ish).

Anyways, Surrit was great as both an ally and enemy, and of course you'd get me killed before retiring. Bum.

grep · **Joined:** Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:50 pm **Posts:** 5522

It would appear that Edoras' feedback is not unlike Kin's. One of my fondest PK memories was when a certain lowbie I had just rolled happened to be around when Surrit was taking shadowy wights around to kill Exile guard NPCs; my character had learned Aghelian because I'm like that, and he managed to pretend he wasn't a native long enough to get away. It was a fun moment that provided the basis for interesting roleplay through the character's lifespan. Hats off to Edoras for engaging in communication when that was technically a risk for his character.

jreid_1985 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 07, 2014 8:24 pm

Necros are efficient killers. Im sure you killed a lot more than you died and your outlaw crimes list was extremely long. They arent what they used to be, but no class should be able to solo cabal guardians. Oh wait they still can.

Edoras · **Posted:** Wed Oct 08, 2014 4:14 am

In general, I often kill more than I die and generate a large outlaw list. My prominent PK characters before this were Rilian, Pilnor, Antiira and Turon, and I would wager they all had above average PK scores. That isn't really the point, but just so you know, I had to put a lot more work and prep into Surrit's kills than most of theirs.

Whether or not someone can "solo kill a cabal guardian" with no one online to defend the HQ has zero bearing on actual PvP balance. CRS is very silly, and cabal guardians aren't meant to be that dangerous without PCs to back them up. Shamans can solo kill outer cabal guardians. Back when the test server was up, I easily duo'd a cabal outer and inner guardian with my gnome hammer merc and a priest, and my gnome merc didn't even have a belt or pants on.

The animate spell has gotten nerfed so hard that necros aren't really efficient "killers", but rather are decent "damage dealers," and that with a whole lot of caveats. Animate-based necros can't come close to reliably bashing a target to keep them from just running away, holy word annihilates undead, everything they do is through orders, and anyone with sanctuary is going to have half the undead bounce off of them in any given order anyway. (Not to mention that animates can't see invis). The best option for a necro to go in PvP now is control-based, and that comes with its own caveats, like a holy word/cancellation/dispel magic dispelling your controls or getting your 3 controls dropped in 2 rounds by BoG. Control-based necros are basically higher damage sorcs with more weaknesses, except without the utility of gate, enchant, mirror image, petrification, giant strength, haste, and shrink/enlarge. The fear spell is nice, but not that nice.

I was the only person successfully playing a necro when Dulrik nerfed animate dead for what's now at least the third time in the past 5 years. I honestly have no idea exactly as to why he did that, but at the time it seemed like someone who had his ear complained about it privately, and that resulted in the animate nerfs. The animate spell has been reduced to little more than a flavor spell now.

jreid_1985 · **Posted:** Wed Oct 08, 2014 8:34 am

I think he made that code change because you were wtfstomping the whole mud with 9 bashers. Necros arent the top class, but they arent the weakest. You can still roll the majority of classes with a decent amount of willpower and an ether wand. Part of playing the class is knowing the weaknesses and choosing when and who to engage.

Kin · **Joined:** Fri Sep 22, 2006 2:42 pm **Posts:** 944

Sad to see Surrit gone.

I was one of the original people that started asking for necromancer changes, specifically animate dead. A long time ago when I played Ixcenia, back when Delves could hold 40+ wraiths, I often times wanted to use other types of undead besides wraiths. Most of the changes I proposed were simple, mainly just making animates of lower castes scale with level, ie being able to summon level 50 skeletons, zombies, etc.

I tried a necro a couple of times after the change and Edoras is entirely right on this. Animates are entirely too weak. It seems none of them can wield weapons and be effective with them. Their touch attacks are alright but not really a threat and their damage is easily mitigated to where it's a not even a factor. Even in PvE vs NPCs, it takes skeletons, which are supposed to be the new DPS'ers if I recall, a while to take anything down because they can't reliably do any damage.

Anywho, this isn't the proper thread for this type of topic and as usual I'll just retire to my silence seeing as I don't really play much anymore. Sad to see you go, Edoras. Know we had our differences but Surrit was a winner. He was always a pleasure to interact with.

Baldric · **Posted:** Mon Oct 13, 2014 3:23 pm

Edoras, stop derailing this thread. It's an afterlife thread for Edoras. Have some respect. If you want to post about game balance, do it in gameplay and stop posting in people's afterlife threads.

Shattered Kingdoms

[Spr Nec][HND][HRO] Surrit, Conduit of Power

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