f13.net

Yep, I started again. I'm am Jack's angry heroin addiction. List your character name(S) and server, class, race and level.

Gracchus MacLennan - Level 4 Human Rogue (Scout), Vindication server
Haemish MacLennan - Level 52 Human Barbarian, Redemption Server

Signe - 51 Human Prelate - Character Creationville

Radge Wee Midden - 1 Human Fighter - Vindication

I offer my help with templates, I will answer to best of my abilities any question from new or returning player. I don't promise it will be the best advice but at least will give you a place to start your research.

Is my deflar still viable? :P

Very, WP barely nerfed them. Problem is that you need all top-notch gear, +9 def to be viable and it is hard to get. You also HAVE TO have buffbot to play, but you know that already. I'd say if you are sitting at 2100+ defense you are GTG, if sub 1900 don't bother with defensive stance and go BGS.

Well i had all +8 gear when i quit, i guess they came out with +9 while i was gone.  I did have a buffbot, first time i had more than 1 account on any game, but being able to solo elf camps = sweet.

Once i figured out the login/pass in the game is case sensitive, but on the account activation website is not, I got in. 

47 Ranger still there.

I assume we can migrate those old characters off the non-existant server, but does this also keep the guild affliation or would we need to make a new one/join another crew?

Xilren

When you migrate your guild info and guild history is wiped. Rangers changed A LOT over last year, make sure to read up.

Yeah, and you can't migrate over to a Lore server.

How are Templars and Confessors now?

I have like a lvl 50 something human templar and a level 50 somthing confessor.

Templars are good as BGS (2h focus sword) and deflars (shield and 1h focus sword + shield +defense plate). Confessors are not so great.

Would there really be a point in even trying to start from scratch, especially without a "buffbot"?

Also, SB.EXE?

If you have a guild to join or bunch of people to come back with then yes it worth a spin and will be fun. If you want to play solo, just like WoW but with PKs, you have to have strong masochistic tendencies to enjoy resulting experience, unless you are good thief and don’t mind dying.

Dwarf-Prelates still own w/ crazy defense + aoe goodness?

What are the top-tier Barb builds currently?  Did anyone come up with a viable rogue-barb build?

Warlocks still the hardest class to make a build for?

Any information on the newer classes (doomsayers and something else I believe) would be sweet.

dwarf prelates seen as no longer having enough punch, most people switched to deflars(templars with a shield) or dwarf sents for aoes. I forgot last time I seen dwarf prelate outside of lore server.

I think top barb build is female werebear all out con 2h axe. I rarely see chainsaws or 2h str minos. I think most people belive in too-much-hp-to-die approach.

Shade fighterlocks are still highest defense character that still can nuke, they are still around and doing fine. Templates are long since known and tried.

As to new - vampire mage assassins are hot. Still I don't want to talk about vampires, it makes me mad.

vampires?  werewolves? 

I'm confused.

Bah, I'm feeling the urge to start playing. I'm already hocked on AO for a month with a bunch of friends though and don't have time for 2 MMORPGs :(

What server are we doing this on?  I am ready to roll now that I have the basics down.  And can we move all side chat to another thread please?

Somehow I got a double post, so here are boobies in penance.

(http://lib1.store.vip.sc5.yahoo.com/lib/babybrazil/2611-pink-polka-dot-bikini.jpg)

edit.  Wacky internet.

  Mmmm...boobies..

Still have 4 toons, including my naked 'fessor. Sure they be ass by todays standars but nice to see the ole shields/colors and such.

Will egt going after tonites St Patty's festivities(ie stagger out of bed tomoorow afternoon smelling of stale beer, conrbeef and cabbage)

(http://jupiter.walagata.com/thumbs/erukul_SBErukul.jpg) (http://jupiter.walagata.com/w/erukul/SBErukul.jpg) <---Touch me, you know you wanna..


 The UI is busy busy, I grabbed the old one from Ashens Site ---> http://www.ashentemper.com/downloads/#interface (I am still looking for that stripped down  one Asheh made- I like em as simply/unobtrusive as possible)

OK I put a new guy on Vindication.  His name is Skeag.  I am creative!

I am actually kind of glad that I don't have the time to dive back into Shadowbane. It remains one of my favorite gaming memories (HD and the folks un it were a lot of fun), but I just can't imagine grinding out that much exp/gold/PvP time again, especially as a 2 week trial or so. If Son of SB.exe is ever published, I will probably give it a try then.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. May God have mercy on your souls.

Its completely free.  FOREVER.  Join us, you know you want to.

I don't exactly remember, but when I left the game I must have given away every blessed thing I had, even the shirt off my back.  Signe is naked except for a duck hat.   :?

Human Sentinel on Vindication: Flood (for ease of recognition)

Took the basic +max CON and +max SPI runes.  No idea what I'm doing since I haven't played in many a moon, much less a new(ish) class.

 Any input for nongimpage appreciated Sinij.

You do realize that you all might not get to play in one guild on Vindication if you decide to roll random characters that don't fit one charter?

Explain this statement in further detail please.  Most of us are just trying things out to see if we would want to make the attempt.

well spi is about useless, you want INT.

http://chronicle.ubi.com/loreplay.php

On lore server you are limited to who you can group and guild with based on type of character.

http://chronicle.ubi.com/loreplay.php

What faction are you all going for on Vindication server?

Btw, what is considered the best bow template now?  I had a huntress/rogue that was bow/kitty kat that was pretty fun, and had started a bard/bow/human just to be a support-ranged type character.  Scouts and rangers were two types I had not tried yet.

BTW, there is still the old Catacombs Shadowbane character builder that is up on that site.  It isn't updated that well, but I used it to plan a couple of character when I was still playing.  Linkage  http://sb.catacombs.com/cbuilder.cfm

I am not on Vindication anymore due to the restrictions.  I am currently a priest on Wrath. 

I haven't even whacked that spider yet.  I might just wait for Shadowbane 2, which I'm pretty sure Ashen promised would be released in a week or so.  I very nearly distinctly remember him almost saying that... more or less. 

Dammit.

LOL Signe.  I'll make sure to tell him he made you cry too.

My 2 characters are on Mourning, i think.  I wouldn't mind joining up with other people from here... but the Loreplay rules are stupidly restrictive.  We'd basically have to choose a charter, post the race/class restrictions, and stick to it, rather than letting people just freely create chars.

Alkiera

I just can't take it anymore. I leveled to 20, went to the mainland, found nothing but red mobs to try to level up on, went back to the n00b island and started the climb to level 21 there, when I finally just broke inside. I had to immediately log off and I'm not sure I can log back on.

I weep, because the character building is just that good. But goddamnit, the actual PVE levelling is so fucking awful, especially without other people. The existing n00b playerbase is worse than WoW's. It was like being beaten about the head with mental retardation.

The noob playerbase was ALWAYS that awful.. you just had the majority of HD there to get you past it.  Since I wasn't on during the PST times everyonene else was, I got a nice facefull of the idocy every time.  The few times I've logged in to attempt to level up (i've gotten to all of level 4) it's been the same stupid as it ever was.

As to the restrictive lore charters, it's better for the game, honestly.  When the majority of the game was using the ARAC charters, there was little point to the backstory or any attempt at political intrigue.  Need a group of stealthy assassins, or a few channelers? Roll 'em up and have 'em join, you can have 'em hit R5 in a few day's time while they hang out with the gold farming groups.  No need to go after that sub-guild that's hiring themselves out.  A better reason to go with one of the restrictive vs open-charters was also one of the few requested items I recall seeing from the game's early history.

That's all well and good, but unless someone takes some initiative and picks a charter, there will be little if any usefulness out of playing on Vindication.

Alkiera

Yup. Unless you can get a macro PL to 60'ish the game is hell. Which as you say is incredibly frustrating cause the character options and PvP environment is really pretty good, but the PvE is just an insult.

The Lore server is good but only for organized guilds that can field good groups based on their charter. Also, loreplay vastly restricts your access to casual PUG's which is a problem if you're looking to join quick PL groups. I agree it's good overall for the game, but only for a certain playstyle.

Dunno, free is a very good price but I'm enjoying other games and don't know if i can suffer the PvE in SB again to get to a competitive level.

See, but that's the playstyle SB has ALWAYS demanded.  If you didn't have a guild, you were fucked.  Perhaps they've changed it to allow the guildless to have an easier life, but that wasn't the original intentof the game.  Its stated goal was to be a game-of-thrones, not random-pk-fest.

True, and that's partially why the game is now free with 3 servers at medium - low population. That playstyle married with the capability for the hardcore guild to 'win' the server didn't work. I had several lvl 75 characters when i quit, and my favourite was an errant character. He got PL'ed in random druid/warlock macro groups to 60 or so, joined a guild to get to 75 and then went errant.

I don't mind requirements to be in a guild, like you say that's the nature of the game. But i do mind having to mindlessly grind through shitty PvE because i can't join the macro group that's running due to 'lore'. I realize that's not a problem if you're in a hardcore play2crush guild, but i don't have any interest in making SB my second job either.

I have a level 30 master skill book for you, Haem.  Come back to EQ2!

On topic: I was trying to say this in the first thread.  BYOG or don't bother.

I'm not even sure it was the lack of people. It was that PVE is a flat-out grind, with no trappings, or gravy or anything. It's GODAWFUL. It always was, but it was bearable because I was coming off of EQ and DAoC. Having playing CoH and WoW and EQ2 now, it's SO FUCKING SLOW. It isn't even about how fast you gain experience, but how boring is the actions which must be done in order to gain exp.

I petitioned making it a bit more fun since few months after release, usual response is that there are higher priorities than PvE. Not sure if they are entirely wrong about it ether, I'd rather have mines than improved PvE.

The problem really being that the two are mutually exclusive heh. Anyway at this late stage i doubt PvE will get anything, my assumption is Wolfpack expects people to be PL'ed to 60.

I agree, AFK powerleveling is more than mindnumbing boring.

I am enjoying the game quite a bit though, my scout just reached level 25, I CAN solo in the lowlevel zone near duskfall (now). Also I managed to grab about 150k gold from the graves of new players who forgot to bank every now and then, so my training costs are covered for now. I even got in a guild and the excitement in hot zones (double xp/loot or something like that)  is quite a nice diversion. You know you will get rolled by a  gank - group sooner or later, so it is not a big deal, escaping them or denying them their precious loot satisfies me for now.  :evil:

Oh,  AFK and "gank" are missing from the spellchecker

edit: The grammar, she eludes me ...

Shit, I think I would have WELCOMED getting rolled by a gank group.

Frankly, they should just RIP THE FUCKING PVE OUT COMPLETELY. It's that fucking bad. It serves no fucking purpose, other than a cockblock to the real game which is PVP. It would be one thing if they were going to improve it, but in the two and half years since I quit the game, it has not been improved one iota. The very fact that the accepted wisdom is to create giant AFK powerleveling groups in order to bypass the bullshit makes it even more galling. It is literally graphical Progressquest; it is pushing buttons to get a new skill every few minutes, and people who play the game don't give a fuck about it one iota. You could strip it out completely tomorrow, and the only cockholsters that would complain are those twats who think you have "EARN" things in an MMOG.

There are ways to get around the throwaway character syndrome that might engender, even if I think that would be much less of an issue than they think. Fuck, people treat their SB characters as throwaways NOW.

The PVE really only serves two purposes.  Firstly, it's the money faucet to keep gold coming into your guilds coffers so they can pay for and maintain their cities.  (I know they've added mines since I initally left, but since they are limited in number I can't imagine this gets most of the players out of gold farming).  Secondly, it was supposed to provide some points of conflict for the players, i.e. competiting to get run drops from npc mobs. So it does have SOME purpose, although in both examples the pve itself is secondary to something else.

However, both of those purposes are pretty much reserved for elder game ones anyway, so again, the sub 50 level pve part really doesn't add anything to the game.  However, established players PL though it anyway so I dont expect WP to change it.  Change=cost. 

The only other time it playes a factor is on a brand new sever as guilds race for the "best" places for their cities and earning their start up costs and that land rush doesn't last long.  I recall the preplanning locations for city planting for having easy access to hunting groups for both gold and runes.

But, the actually moment to moment pve?  Other than the random loot generator, bleh.

Xilren

Unfortunately I can't go into the efforts I've expended over the years to enhance the newbie experience. If it was up to me, with SB being free, we would by pass or severely speed up the pre level 50 experience.

I have fully developed characters on Mourning, and I can PL myself between 2 accounts.  But if I were to have to start over on a new server, with no guild or group at my back, I probably wouldn't go.

Since the game is free they should make it so you can just pay $5 to have a character upgraded to r5.  It is not like the newbie experience can become any worse.

See, in that instance, if they provided you enough gold to equip yourself, I might actually pay the $5 for that. And I HATE paying for virtual shit. But the PVP/siege game can be that fun, it's just that the PVE is so fucking bad, and is NEVER going to get better. EVER. It's not a priority, nor should it be. The PVE is never going to be what people play the game for, at least not until it is improved to the point of being at least as good as EQ2 or WoW, so it just gets in the damn way.