After several RL years (about 6) I am considering returning to Imperian with the advent of more resources and time (and the added perk of not being a teenage idiot anymore and also I issue an apology to anyone affected by said idiocy). Basically, I am realizing that a lot has changed since the last time I played, from the death of Gods, and some classes have received some pretty major overhauls. About the last thing I really remember from playing before was right after the creation of the profession system and there was a funky connection to being unable to take a class out of your respective circle without some pretty severely hampering side effects.
So all of that said, I created a Ranger, but that was picked mostly on a spur of the moment decision because I really enjoyed the RP that surrounded Harker back in the day. What I'm trying to figure out as far as enjoyment of play: I've made quite a few advancements educationally and occupationally since I last played, but still working on my master's degree - so I have some resources, but not a ton. Probably enough to tri-trans, do survival and antidotes, and maybe an artifact or two as time progresses and more cash comes in (and probably do a convenience buy for a perma tree and shield tattoo because they are so cheap now)... I am not much of a coder and I don't have the time to develop a full system with school and a full time job, but it seems like the autocuring system that is built in seems to be pretty decent, even if it may not handle some of the details on some of the individual classes? ... I really enjoy(ed?) the Ithaquan RP so I would like to stick with a profession and guild from that line.
Are there any opinions out there for the learning curve? I am thinking either Ranger or Outrider (I found out after creating a character that bonding has been axed and replaced with wyrmriding - it is a little cliche, but frankly, being able to ride a dragon is still unashamedly cool). Last time I played bowmanship was pretty much just broken (started out to be ungodly powerful, and then got nerfed into being unusable) is that still the case? ... As fun as I thought the idea of the profession was, I don't think I have the capabilities to code a system to track the stances for an Idras with the amount of time I have available right now...
Sorry I know this is a little scattered, but I was just curious for opinions and wanted to raise all of the thoughts going through my head before I started spending money on a character - thanks in advance.
EDIT: I suppose I should clarify about the resources - I can't afford to do a ton of artifacts right now, so the cheaper the class, the better... knights used to be insanely expensive to play because you had to buy two arti swords... etc.
Comments
Outrider does require a bit more thought, but have more avalaible options to kill the target. Don't think the learning curve is too steep, and probably would be more rewarding in the long run.
Ranger doesn't seem to work until you get at least near Aspect levels, so you likely have a good bit of work ahead of you.
It's a defensive thing. Rangers don't have much to effectively delay an opponent, so you basically need enough health to tank most sans-artifact damage.
After that, you're pretty much golden. You hurt enough that an untargeted attack will put most people on the defensive, and you can start setting limbs if they do turtle up. Essentially, people have to run after a certain amount of time, because at Athletic or Dextrous, two or three broken limbs will guarantee the ability to lock a person down until an incendiary arrow goes off.
But that's if you don't start breaking limbs just to delay people from hurting you.
I don't know what you're talking about with "not much to effectively delay an opponent". If I were player warden, I'd just slowly set up limbs while annoying the hell out of my opponent with my repertoire of slow-you-down.