Basically Axe and I were part of a tank heavy beat squad with 3 clerics and a minstrel. Koryneal had his standard group of say 2 bards, 2 druids, a warden, an Enchanter (I think), and whomever. We faced each other on 3 separate occasions, purely 8v8 and one each battle with minimal losses (2 deaths at most).
Despite the skill of the group, there were alot of 1.53 factors involved in our success.
Prevent Flight
End chant
New Purge and Determination costs
Add to that:
Every member had purge
Countless instant heals from clerics and RA's
No obvous targets (everyone was in either chain or plate)
High member HP (all +1600)
And you have yourself a nice hibby killer group.
NEVER leave AP w/o a Pally. End Chant > All
Oh BTW: Axe = Block Bot :)
@Bolldar/Amerasu...theoretically, the same new RA's that gave the Hibs such grief would help protect Amerasu. And if not, then maybe what we have now is situationally dependent ideal group makeups. You could use Bolldar to roam around and tick off Kory, or put Amer at the milegate with PBAE to keep out stealthers--they'd LOVE to have some PBAE out there.
I was a bit ticked at first...perma-sprint has seriously cut down my speed advantage, they can catch me even when I SoS. OK, maybe I want those 10 points back, but it'll be useful sometimes. It was worth it just to read Kory's whining.
Heh, yeah. It made me all warm and tingly inside to see him crushed with depression about the futility of going straight-up against the might of the paladin. lol... what a wuss. Sucks when you can't win 100% of the battles you get into, I guess.
SoS is still extremely useful. For one thing, SoS + pallie sprint is faster than everything. You cannot be caught. It's also good for those mezz moments when purge is down... which happens a lot. I got mezzed a whole bunch of times last night, but glano stayed near me and being the target she is, intercept got me free three times. Once I was mezzed for the duration, but it was about 8 seconds... at the fringe of the mezz and 35% body resist.
The best part is... I can actually protect people now. I must have blocked a zillion times.
I think the success of the group last night owed a lot to the clerics. You've got 2 paladins, 2 mercs, a minstrel, and three clerics... who do you kill first? The obvious choice is the clerics. But you've got FIVE insta group heals to deal with, plus 3 insta single target heals, plus countless castable heals if you don't dedicate one person per cleric. Not to mention that two of the three clerics had a palliepet.
If I were on the other side of this, I'd probably weep and moan and gnash my teeth too. Bwahahaha.
Of course, now that a minstrel is closer to convenience than necessity (although still close to necessity), I may dust off my 32 armsman. In theory, with the to-hit modifier vs. level gone...an armsman with the snare proc RA can still snare an enemy, even if he hits for minimal damage.
Edit: My God, Korynael is a farkin' wussy whiner.
(Edited by Gueuze at 8:09 pm on Sep. 28, 2002)
Amerasu isn't really affected anyway, she could but rarely get away anyway, due to her low hps the first blow to land normally took her into the region of speed diminishment and if that didnt happen she was normally stunned, snared or rooted or poisoned which was serious with no HPs :).
So over all I think the position of Albion casters is about as bad as it was but no worse. We will still die quickly and be first or amongst first slain. However the position of the Hibbie and the Middie (if you can figure out who they are) casters is materially affected by this and in that respect it does give Albion as a whole if not our casters a better chance.