Shattered Kingdoms

Actually, low HP classes do have protections in the form of special items. That makes voodoo primarily a newbie-killer, and especially effective against lowbies without all their class's HP. I remember killing a mid-level necromancer with a near-naked griffon shaman at Master.

I realize there's an intent to stop hoarders here, but this is silly. Hoarders are going to have an anti-voodoo item anyway.

I'm a big fan of option C. I'd like to do away with damage altogether unless the shaman has a doll. In exchange, I'd like to see voodoo not paralyze the shaman; let the spell be useful in chasing down enemies with a group.

I'm also in favor of voodoo being removed, as long as shamans get some other shaman-specific skill. Shamans are too similar to priests at high levels as-is.

Admittedly, I've never played a successful pally or necro, but you have to say that those are powerful spells that counteract each other.

But what about what I said about penalties, that it kills the caster too in the same way that FS does? For such a powerful spell as voodoo, that's not a bad idea.

I chose option B for the following suggestion.

Don't allow multivoodoo. Flag the target for 5-6 IC hours, so that they can't be ganked by a voodoo spam from a group of shamans.

If you die to a single voodoo though, you totally deserve it. Either you don't have enough buffs(your error) or the shaman has a doll of yours(your mistake also) or the shaman has enough mana mods. Gank him and get them from him.

As for your own example, you realise that you could have used either your law NPCs to keep sanc on you or one of the OP sanc wands of the game, then after you survived voodoo you could use a gate wand and pop next to the shaman instantly, killing him in 2 magma sprays(you have 5 whole RL mins to perform this action actually - that's the amount of time the shaman is paralyzed and totally debuffed). And if you tell me that I bring items as an argument, the shaman has mana mods anyway to effectively voodoo kill anyone without a doll.

PS: I love how you bring the argument of spam quaffing SA is impossible, yet spam quaffing RE is not impossible in your book when a warlock can just dart inside and own you with magma with less than 2 rounds casting time.

You can see a warlock coming, or know he's going to be on an opposing force. In addition, the casting time for magma spray is *gasp* longer than the time required to quaff RE, whereas voodoo comes without warning and at any time. Stop beating a dead horse.

And how do you propose I get all these elite items, D-A? Shall I waltz around and find them while always carting around a law NPC to spam sanc on me? (As if that would save me regardless.) What about going to places that don't allow law NPCs? And as for your absurd recommendation, no I would not have been able to zap my nonexistent gate wand and then magma him in front of his two allies that he voodoo'd me next to while under midnight, especially considering that I was voodoo'd when none of my allies were on. Also, how am I supposed to get the EQ required to gank him when I can't gather anything due to the fact that I can be instantly killed at any time? How am I supposed to get his spirit dolls, or super high mana mods, when I live and die at his whim?

I bet Vaodan could tank that. At least I think that was his name. Either way, he was a beast for a clothy priest.

The magma casting time is so small it isn't that hard to dart inside and magma someone before he does a take resist back;quaff resist. So unless your target was spam quaffing resist potions to keep it up 24/7, he can be surprised ganked by a warlock. So spam quaff SA if you want to avoid voodoo. Not to mention that SA devices(staves/wands/scrolls/scripts) are far more common than RE devices.

And yes, sanc from a law NPC would have saved you. If you die to a non doll voodoo with high level sanc up, you would probably die from 1 single hit from any weapon(even ranged), that's how crappy your HP pool is.

As for the whole dramatic scenery of...

[--- ---] Pyras - Alone in Pyranthia, fighting darkness solo!!~11oneone

get some allies to help you gank a shaman.

PS: While voodoo does ensure infinite range for a gank, it doesn't ensure that your enemies can loot your corpse. So it's just a kill most of the times. Find a way back to life and get back your things.

I find it hard to believe any priest(without IA) at all could tank(and beat) Derk alone, let alone tank all the other NPCs(which include a Champ Swashie with weapons and two of the notorious "Trio" from the CoN), and a GM hellion PC. =/

I take it you never saw him in action.

edit: so he may not have been able to actually do all that, but who knows maybe he could. all im sayin is he was awesome. somebody back me up here?

None of those were even PCs...

Except Benjamin and he sucked. I mean, the trio is cool and all, but they don't match up to the DPS of a fully buffed and well-equipped fighter. If a merc with his spec had been facing you in that fight, you would have gotten destroyed.

I would refrain from underestimating NPCs, lol. I have a log somewhere of an addy/diamond wearing merc with a mithril kama(his spec, before they got wimped) getting destroyed pretty much single-handedly by Bill Kourney.

And being a NPC wouldn't stop him from killing a priest in 2-3 rounds.
>_>


Side note, why the hell does everyone underestimate what a shaman can do in melee?