Random musing as I think about returning to HG

[Yojimbo]

I want to return but there is so much that keeps me out for the moment. I have loads of toons but many of them were more experiments than anything else. Which on that note can the test chamber grant vials of blood for proper testing open subs or has this been done in my absence? I wish there was some ways to reset beyond reinc as while understandably limited I kind of wish I had some options with greater sacrifice to extract from them things like artifacts and/or the experience. Maybe some of this has been done somewhere in my absence just options to fix or just make old garbage toons "useful". I kind of think of and like the idea of a recycling option the toon is just deleted and you can claim bound items and Sapphire of Sagacity up to maybe 60% of the toons exp. Bound items would no longer be bound to a toon but maybe bound to the account again this is just a person looking at a list of toons and wanting to scrap many of them and I know this is a bit much but might be a good use for toons in some closets besides mine.

I hope to get back in game sometime but a fair bit needs to be done before I will be in game at the moment.

[woqued]

Reincarnating is essentially what you propose, but for one toon only and with class, subrace and time limitation - you only got one week for re-dos. Enter game, open up a "reincbox1" , dump shit in, walk to the light. You got your exp on the new guy you wanna make.

Just ignore your old turds and reincarnate one of them into something new. It's one of those things when there's too much shiny/dirty and you can't see what matters out of it all, when all of the other stuff is actually irrelevant and if you could simply not look at them they wouldn't matter. Ignore the old ones, reincarnate one of them with the sub tier / class you want and get on with it. Bur subraces are rather cheap now so you can also just trade / ask an old friend for 2 bur subraces and upgrade.

I feel like reincarnation is a very close implementation of what you ask, honestly - and HG's way of doing it. Just do it buddy.

[Yojimbo]

I'm just willing to sacrifice more than you do in a reinc to clean space in toon list but get some things back particularly the more limited stuff. I don't recall most the details of reinc but I know limited to same CC or same mix of classes this just cuts out some steps and wait time for completely shifting class and all. It also could free up items for use on a different newer toon it is really just rambling from a look at my toons and thinking man I have too many I want to just kind of merge some or sacrifice some to gain something useful from them. I have seen things like I mention and for most people for most things reinc is far better and more forgiving than the grinder other games might have.

[woqued]

Yep I remember another older player simply deleting most of their characters after ripping most of their usable gear out. Technically it could be nice to get sapphires and whatnot from it, but it's probably not worth the effort to find out a nice balance implementation -wise, nor is it really necessary. It would be a nice added boon.

[kratlin]

Hi Yoj - I don't know if you remember but we played quite a bit together a few years back.

I had the same dilemma when I returned and made a similar enquiry. I wanted to try and play the new areas but my toons were sub-optimal. A couple of the vets gave me some advice that turned out to be very good.

Firstly, for tanks, reincarnate a fighter. They are now outstandingly solid in all areas of the mod (very much not meta when you last played I expect). Make it a 2 hander strength build. Go splash monk and then either pally or if you have good gear then you can try the weapon master splash. I went pally on mine and it does decent damage and has great saves. There are builds posted. I would also say Ranger is a good option also but there are rumours of a nerf to 2h ranger builds so you may wish to wait before making one.

Secondly, re-incarnate a bard and druid to ones posted by Raj - these builds are both still very good (there are some fancier ones around but no need to worry about that for now). It's great to come up with your own unique spin but when you are just returning this is hard to do IMHO.

Once you have these 3 builds you will be able to go anywhere in the mod and be welcome in most parties.

Finally, don't delete your old toons - let them just cool their heels in your vault for a while - you may get back to them one day. Strip their gear so they are ready for when you want to reincarnate them.

Hope we get a bit of game time together sometime and welcome back. If you need a BUR book to upgrade your subraces then come find me as I have some spares.

[chainlink]

The CC is really all that matters for a reincarnation so as long as you keep this the same (assuming you don't want to do a multi-step 3 or 6 month thing) you can do what you want with any non-CC classes you may have inserted into what you might describe as 'fail' builds.

There would have to be a serious reason for me to delete a character as they are effectively XP banks that can get you something usable in LL areas with minimal effect.

If you don't have all the pre-LL accomplishments on them then create a proxy (or proxies if you have multiple accounts) to be able to transfer all accs over, this will also allow you to check out the pre-41 areas of the mod at least once.

Do bear in mind if you do this that the proxy must be exactly the same race/subrace and class mix as the character you want to apply it to so either ensure you've upgraded the race on the target character before you start or take the extra challenge of playing a low tier subrace to 41 before applying it then up-tiering the target.

Reincarnation also allows you to change the names on historic characters to something more in line with what you want, just remember if you are one of the 'odd' people that likes to use exactly the same name you will have to wait an additional 24 hours before you can access the new one to prevent database issues.

[tritone]

I thought I'd add on slightly to Kratlin's suggestion -- Bard and Druid is what Kratlin built, but a Sorc (Raj ZOMG sorc is still current), Cleric (pure or splashed or theurge can all work, as long as it does heartbanes, implosions, and some cleric epics), and to a lesser extend Caster Shifter (drunkenboaster's, with wildshape/outsider/construct/dragon shapes imo) will do the same for you of making you welcome and able to contribute as a core to any called run.

Tanks today are judged mostly on their damage potential in limbo even when they live most or all their lives in hell/abyss runs. That is to say any old uni tank that's not popular any more will probably still do well enough in hell -- some might even do better than what's "meta" today. For example, a dual nunchuck-wielding tank can be just as tanky and do more damage to Pit Fiends than a 2h weapon master splashed crit monster because Pit Fiends and other tank targets in hell/abyss are generally a) crit-immune and b) have none-to-low damage resists.

That is the context to take Kratlin's tank advice; This divide has softened up a bit with nerfs to 2h damage and changes to extra-attacks buffs, but to do really well in limbo where it matters, you still bring a) 2h wm str tanks and b) tanks that support that damage dealing like a 2h ranger (for invis purge) and an inflicting tank of some kind, often a shifter-tank lash (which Kratlin happened to already have when he came back so he didn't need to reinc one). Examples of other archetypes that work well enough that your friends won't hate you too much even if it only reaches 50-90% of the "best" damage potential are: AA (damage scales with levels and not with XR weapon ownership!), smiters, battlecasters that partially fills a core role on top of doing damage (stormlord, battlecleric, warchanter/battlebard, staffmaster, slinger), quasiclasses that do well enough on some runs that they're easily tolerated on runs they're weaker on (bfm, pariah, pale master, zen ranger, assasin, ...) -- the list expands with more game knowledge and gear available to you and your party.

And on a more personal note, welcome back! I'm someone who has a lot of experience in recent years, but I probably wouldn't have persisted in the early learning and exploration when I started out if it hadn't been for the countless old forum posts by you and others discussing various knowledge and social practice about the game.

Edit: You asked about ways to explore builds outside of what subraces you already own to try in the test chamber -- Once I have the basic idea down, I find a build sheet like this very very handy. Just fill in classes, stats, and feats, and let the sheet calculate your ab/ac/saves/hp.

[Yojimbo]

Jul 19, 2022 14:20:58 GMT tritone said:

Edit: You asked about ways to explore builds outside of what subraces you already own to try in the test chamber -- Once I have the basic idea down, I find a build sheet like this very very handy. Just fill in classes, stats, and feats, and let the sheet calculate your ab/ac/saves/hp.

I just like the test chamber to make sure I didn't miss a pre-req or something stupidly simple that invalidates the build.

Thanks guys I need to sit down to put some build ideas down and read up but between work and home so much and then to game I really want to get a new GPU for it nothing too fancy but also don't want to pay the currently more reasonable prices still. I want to get something like a GTX 1650, 1650 Super or 1660 using GDDR6 to have lots of uses and play any game I have. I think Witcher 3 is game with most advanced system requirements in my library of games.

[chainlink]

As reincarnation gives you a week to finalise stuff you can do it again if you mess something up during levelling. What races do you have available to you as anything other than base would not be able to benefit from dragon blood use anyway?

[Yojimbo]

The dragon blood was more of an update to an old open sub build I had for fun on that one but its been reinc to a BUR so it would just be a test build to see if it was viable.

[thomascovenant]

Out of topic Yojimbo a sure thing to see you come back on the game will make me very happy, hope to see you soon on the game

[jelricle]

Come back on! I guess you can't mix and match tagged items from your various old toons, but reincarnation really does cover just about everything else.
Also, you probably have toons with a proper set of tagged items for some of the powerful builds.

Or relive the mod from the start! Heck, I am willing to bet that you would have no problem finding people to help speed run you through to legendary and beyond, if you wanted.