Shattered Kingdoms

I don't want catch-alls. State specific builds with reasoning.

I gave my reasoning.

You, of course, refused to accept the truth.

I always want to see someone play a deep-elf swashbuckler, or deep-elf mercenary. But of course everybody is always like QQ bolt of glory is way too powerful, I can't stand up against that!

Idiots.

For healer/maledictor shaman, human is the best bet, and they do really well in tribs. Tank shaman, sprite is probably the only way to go, and they do well in Fist, Hammer, and Harlies. Well, they'd probably do pretty well in any cabal, but those three build towards the strengths of the class/race combo best. The human doesn't do as well upfront due to size, but the sprites don't do as well in back due to wis limitations. In a pinch, either could do okay in opposing role, though. There's not a lot that you'd call a weakness to those combos, either, aside from concentration limitations should the human find themselves front row, and vulnerability to one-shot fort-based spells on the sprite's part.

Been harping about this for years, but a griffon bard is prob my number 1 choice of "would like to see." Mechanically, def not the best race for the class, and if you tried to carry it into PK you'd see your butt handed to you more often than you'd do the handing, but I'd enjoy the arepees of it.

Sprite bard is a great combo, though. Got enough int to handle some of the heavier songs better than humans can. It's also pretty open to cabal choices. Aside from law immunity or RP, there's no real reason to take this combo to a trib. You can get more and better buffs afield with persuade that you would ever get with leadership. High dex enhances the dance/sing ability, as well as evasion of dirt and the like which can shut down a bard trying to utilize scrolls and such, and the innate flight is always a plus. Weaknesses? Not too many, really, especially given the fact that songs and chords aren't affected by stance lag increases. Iron, I guess, for the race, but I've played a few sprites now and given their evasion abilities and a source of spirit aura, iron weakness isn't really a factor. There's always the one-shot fort spells though, I guess.

Any class with bash and/or order bash. This is pretty well top of the food chain because the tactics of SK have essentially been reduced to bashbashbashbashbashbashwin. If you want to win pk, just play something that bashes or can order 2-9 bashes all at once and you're golden. Only real weakness to this is melee classes are eq-dependant, but as WW is so very fond of pointing out, there's a ton of eq in the game. It doesn't even have to be good eq, or enchanted, if you have mastered bash and a neutral or aggressive combat stance. Don't even have eq dependance as a weakness for a class like necro, especially with those instaLathrons in that broken tower with the brain damaged repop timer.

I was under the assumtion that sprites got a mana boost for a racial perk.

If it is, it's kinda similar to the griffon "bonus to resist charm effects." Read: useless, ineffective, and not enough to offset the racial weaknesses that cause that kind of bonus to be necessary.

EDIT: Though, I really don't think they do, and am not sure where you would get the idea that they did.

Help file.

Also when you choose sprite the mana pool automatically drops as though it was added to in the hall of creation.

Um, the help file for sprites doesn't say anything about them getting a bonus to manas.

has the helpfile been changed in the last 11 years?

I'm just going to let the list of racial advantages/weaknesses speak for itself from the help file at this point.

Alright well you go ahead and play a deep elf swashie, idiot.