The Clan Lord Sentinel

Sala Dragon wrote:

Leinis wrote:Hit and run isn't always the best way to pass. Often times you can trade blows in an advantageous manner if you know what you're fighting against. For example, the Young Sasquatch in 6th has poor Regia and you can sneak in a second swing against it before turning around and running away without getting hit. This leads to a 2:1 trade of swings where just doing hit and run would trade 1:1. Likewise, you can trade with the Green Arachnoid in a 3:2 manner in the 4th circle test.

The Darshak Raider is also a 3:2, although it requires you to have 3 swings' worth of balance!

There are a few other things too, like for instance the Ice Greymyr's delay between Swing 1 and 2 is shorter than between 2 and 3. So if you partially brick on full balance, it makes sense to wait for its first two swings then go for a 2:1 exchange on it after that.

The only thing I would personally change is the time limits. Get rid of them entirely.

Cradlesong wrote:The only thing I would personally change is the time limits. Get rid of them entirely.

So some ranger with troilus can sit in the second circle test all day cackling that no one else can get in? No thanks.

(also I would probably do that if there was no time limit )

Icy wrote:

Cradlesong wrote:The only thing I would personally change is the time limits. Get rid of them entirely.

So some ranger with troilus can sit in the second circle test all day cackling that no one else can get in? No thanks.

(also I would probably do that if there was no time limit )

That is what the courts are for. Lawsuit or log.

Cradlesong wrote:

Icy wrote:

Cradlesong wrote:The only thing I would personally change is the time limits. Get rid of them entirely.

So some ranger with troilus can sit in the second circle test all day cackling that no one else can get in? No thanks.

(also I would probably do that if there was no time limit )

That is what the courts are for. Lawsuit or log.

Court system doesn't really work with such a small number of people on at a time. I can't remember the last one that was effective. I don't see what the problem is with time limits anyway. It's part of judging ability.

It's a Tortoise not a Hare race as a wise friend of mine would say. Just takes time and grinding. Focus on Evus and Swengus and you will get there I promise

How many second circle rangers are there?

Lorikeet wrote:
Court system doesn't really work with such a small number of people on at a time. I can't remember the last one that was effective. I don't see what the problem is with time limits anyway. It's part of judging ability.

If the person testing is a) still alive, b) has the horus to raise Glory, then the time limit is pointless. In regard to the fighter test, it too heavily influences how one trains, and tactics practiced. A time limit has nothing to do with ability beyond healing fast or killing fast, which some folks may not care to focus on. It simply benefits speed healers/fighters.

Ability should be judged on killing the test animals or raising Glory while surviving. Not on how fast those objectives are accomplished. Now in the latter case rats or roaches could be added to the test. In the former, respawns or perhaps reinforcements at intervals would be a better test of ability.

Cradlesong wrote:

Lorikeet wrote:
Court system doesn't really work with such a small number of people on at a time. I can't remember the last one that was effective. I don't see what the problem is with time limits anyway. It's part of judging ability.

If the person testing is a) still alive, b) has the horus to raise Glory, then the time limit is pointless. In regard to the fighter test, it too heavily influences how one trains, and tactics practiced. A time limit has nothing to do with ability beyond healing fast or killing fast, which some folks may not care to focus on. It simply benefits speed healers/fighters.

Ability should be judged on killing the test animals or raising Glory while surviving. Not on how fast those objectives are accomplished. Now in the latter case rats or roaches could be added to the test. In the former, respawns or perhaps reinforcements at intervals would be a better test of ability.

And of course, we can agree to disagree. Many have complained that the tests don't really test what happens out in the "field" and they are right. That said, the speed at which you can raise someone does affect your healing ability, and the speed at which you can take down creatures is also an indication of your ability. I think it would be silly to have no time limit in the test. They do last a pretty long time. Unless you train like Taryn, who needs to be able to burst while touching and has a very small amount of Faustus, it shouldn't affect you.

Lorikeet wrote:

Cradlesong wrote:If the person testing is a) still alive, b) has the horus to raise Glory, then the time limit is pointless. In regard to the fighter test, it too heavily influences how one trains, and tactics practiced. A time limit has nothing to do with ability beyond healing fast or killing fast, which some folks may not care to focus on. It simply benefits speed healers/fighters.

Ability should be judged on killing the test animals or raising Glory while surviving. Not on how fast those objectives are accomplished. Now in the latter case rats or roaches could be added to the test. In the former, respawns or perhaps reinforcements at intervals would be a better test of ability.

And of course, we can agree to disagree. Many have complained that the tests don't really test what happens out in the "field" and they are right. That said, the speed at which you can raise someone does affect your healing ability, and the speed at which you can take down creatures is also an indication of your ability. I think it would be silly to have no time limit in the test. They do last a pretty long time. Unless you train like Taryn, who needs to be able to burst while touching and has a very small amount of Faustus, it shouldn't affect you.

On top of what Lorikeet has pointed out, the time limit does force healers to have a minimum amount of Faustus. This is probably a good thing because it prevents the possibility of some odd but incredibly powerful healer builds (imagine a healer with 0 Faustus healing faster than a healer with 1000 Faustus).

Leinis wrote:

Lorikeet wrote:

Cradlesong wrote:If the person testing is a) still alive, b) has the horus to raise Glory, then the time limit is pointless. In regard to the fighter test, it too heavily influences how one trains, and tactics practiced. A time limit has nothing to do with ability beyond healing fast or killing fast, which some folks may not care to focus on. It simply benefits speed healers/fighters.

Ability should be judged on killing the test animals or raising Glory while surviving. Not on how fast those objectives are accomplished. Now in the latter case rats or roaches could be added to the test. In the former, respawns or perhaps reinforcements at intervals would be a better test of ability.

And of course, we can agree to disagree. Many have complained that the tests don't really test what happens out in the "field" and they are right. That said, the speed at which you can raise someone does affect your healing ability, and the speed at which you can take down creatures is also an indication of your ability. I think it would be silly to have no time limit in the test. They do last a pretty long time. Unless you train like Taryn, who needs to be able to burst while touching and has a very small amount of Faustus, it shouldn't affect you.

On top of what Lorikeet has pointed out, the time limit does force healers to have a minimum amount of Faustus. This is probably a good thing because it prevents the possibility of some odd but incredibly powerful healer builds (imagine a healer with 0 Faustus healing faster than a healer with 1000 Faustus).

Actually, I wouldn't mind if a healer with 0 Faustus was healing faster than a healer with 1000 Faustus. And I wouldn't care if there were some weird but powerful healer builds. The only problem for that healer would be access to fourth circle staff or fifth circle Metta Sylpha, if appropriate. I suppose if the healer was incredibly powerful, he/she could do without the clothes

Build disparity makes the game more interesting.

Leinis wrote:

Lorikeet wrote:

Cradlesong wrote:If the person testing is a) still alive, b) has the horus to raise Glory, then the time limit is pointless. In regard to the fighter test, it too heavily influences how one trains, and tactics practiced. A time limit has nothing to do with ability beyond healing fast or killing fast, which some folks may not care to focus on. It simply benefits speed healers/fighters.

Ability should be judged on killing the test animals or raising Glory while surviving. Not on how fast those objectives are accomplished. Now in the latter case rats or roaches could be added to the test. In the former, respawns or perhaps reinforcements at intervals would be a better test of ability.

And of course, we can agree to disagree. Many have complained that the tests don't really test what happens out in the "field" and they are right. That said, the speed at which you can raise someone does affect your healing ability, and the speed at which you can take down creatures is also an indication of your ability. I think it would be silly to have no time limit in the test. They do last a pretty long time. Unless you train like Taryn, who needs to be able to burst while touching and has a very small amount of Faustus, it shouldn't affect you.

On top of what Lorikeet has pointed out, the time limit does force healers to have a minimum amount of Faustus. This is probably a good thing because it prevents the possibility of some odd but incredibly powerful healer builds (imagine a healer with 0 Faustus healing faster than a healer with 1000 Faustus).

That doesn't prevent the possibility of a healer like that existing, just preventing a healer like that from passing the tests. Which is my point.

Chmee wrote:How many second circle rangers are there?

None, but you can certainly choose to retake tests at any level.

Cradlesong wrote:That doesn't prevent the possibility of a healer like that existing, just preventing a healer like that from passing the tests. Which is my point.

That healer can't exist without passing fourth. Which is my point.

The build you're imagining (extremely low Faustus) wouldn't be as "incredibly powerful" as you're hypothesizing.

Let's say there were no test time limits, and a healer with 1000 Respia, 1000 Higgy, and enough Awaria to reach the 2x cap. Then that healer could pass thru 5th circle by aligning the creatures so that they could self-heal all the damage indefinitely (as I did). There are only two advantages to extremely low Faustus:
a) you need less Awaria ranks to reach the 2x cap -- big deal
b) you get a bigger "faustus" benefit when bursting rodnus-fighters (and Sprite-healers)

One disadvantage of (b) is that bursting is much more inefficient than normal healing with faustus. For the same amount of healing done, it costs the healer 2x the health and 4x the spirit. On hunts where a lot of healing is needed, e.g. Metz or Bison Plains (or wherever there's lots of damage from feralling creatures), effectively that turns the 1000 Respia, 1000 Higgy bursting healer into a 250 Respia, 500 Higgy faustus healer. Why avoid training say 500 Faustus to end up with effectively 1250 less Respia+Higgy ranks? Sure, while you are micro-bursting you have a fairly high effective faustus, but you can't sustain it -- you run out of health. And that's very dangerous to do in places like Bison Plains.

Another disadvantage of (b) is that it requires contact over time, which fighters don't like in battle. You still cad or area-heal at extremely low faustus.

A third disadvantage of not training any faustus is that you can't train Sprite, so other healers will heal you rather slowly.

I like the build I have, but it's not for the reason you think. Yes I can temporarily produce around 600 faustus of healing, but I can't sustain it, so my net effective faustus averaged over time is much less. But the high Higgy + high self-heal gives me high survivability. In the hunts/expeditions I lead, the survivability of the group drops dramatically if I fall. I can't afford to fall. I learned early on that I can't trust fighters to protect me (some do, most don't), so I trained to protect myself.

I also like being different.

Taryn.

Leinis wrote:

Cradlesong wrote:That doesn't prevent the possibility of a healer like that existing, just preventing a healer like that from passing the tests. Which is my point.

That healer can't exist without passing fourth. Which is my point.