Shattered Kingdoms

People may have not noticed because two of the changes were relatively minor, but these three changes formed a theme:

- The first 10 levels of enchantments don't count for item thieves
- Scout herbs can be located one status earlier than before
- Scouts can skin materials earlier than before but with failure chance

The theme was to take away a few of the gripes that were continously spouted about why you had to grind to GM. I maintain that characters should be "core complete" at Master. That does NOT mean that they can't get better. What that means is that you gain no new skills or spells, no further gain to HP or movement, and you should be able to play competitively (although at minor disadvantage), against higher levels.

The changes gave some stuff to scouts earlier than before, and actually we are probably going to revamp some of the herbs soon anyway. But the signficant change is while you still can't keep native high level gear, you can get your kit enchanted to the same level as a GMs gear without fear of it being taken by level thieves.

(Incidentally, you can also enchant gear for lower level characters also without it being taken, although you may have to be more careful about how much you enchant it and possibly stop before hitting max enchants.)

Now that people have had almost a week with the change, I thought I'd spell this out and start getting opinions from people about how well the change is working. Is it possible to play competitively now without feeling forced to grind to GM? (Keep in mind that I still WANT incentives to get to higher levels, I just don't want people forced to do it before they "start playing the game".)

At this point a necromancer is really not viable without wraiths especially with the flight changes so that wights + flight = suck. I suggest the lowering of the level required to get wraiths to something on par with elementals. 10-20-30-40 or some such. Maybe 45 for wraiths or something?

Also I'm not sure, but do mercs/barbs get extra attack speed at GM? If so that's a big incentive, but I'm not sure if the last bump is 40 or 50.

In general after this patch I still think GM is very well needed to be viable really but a little less so. I'm not really sure how to improve it besides what I said above. Perhaps it's more of a mental thing for anything other then necro/merc/barb (possibly only necro pending on speed bumb).

What I'm curious about is, what is the incentive to GM now? Aside from the accomplishment.

I'm also concerned about a growing trend of pleveling to Master, going out to the PK field, and deleting when they get bored, then rinse and repeat.

Doesn't seem like the right question, Snuffles. I'm sure there are many reasons that players still value GM and that they will post many of them here.

This is definitely a step in the right direction. The same should be done for necros as what was done for scouts.

Phat lewt Snuffles.

Most scripted phat lewt is lvl 50, or should be. Anyone but a GM will eventually lose it to thieves.

OK, there are other reasons too, but phat lewt wins everything else.

Ok then. I was just hoping GMs could get something "phat", not necessarily overpowered for a little bit of added incentive.

I voted that the changes do make you competitive on the PK field, although I agree with the assessment about necromancers.

There is still plenty of incentive to GM. Most of the good equipment starts at level 45+.

Guess I need to get a char to master and give er a try.

Necromancers are not hard to GM. Hard to get close to GM, but not hard once you get close. Wraiths should be for level 49 and 50 only. I only say 49 incase you suck an e-drain or something.