Ringwraith Rune Lore
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| + | Personally, I pick races & guilds based on an envisioned theme (i.e. pseudo-roleplaying). Because that's the way I roll (pun intended), I can only provide general guidelines for those whose real question may be "what's the best Ringwielder race?" | ||
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| + | Ringwielders are very accommodating to any playstyle (e.g. melee, spellcaster, or something in between), so you have to that into consideration. In general, well-rounded stats are important, as we have four primary stats ([[intelligence]], [[willpower]], [[charisma]] and [[perception]]); and if you want to be a jack-of-all-trades, then the physical stats are of importance as well. | ||
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| =Joining= | =Joining= | ||
Revision as of 19:16, 28 January 2010
Contents |
Introduction
This is my Ringerwielder's guide to domination and servitude, building upon or updating the advice found in the Newbie's Guide to a Ring of Power. I began serving our lord Ahrikol as Sinister Stairs, then Ixithoth, and my current general is Corvynna Kinslayer the betrayer.
My primary purpose for writing this guide was to share my experiences with the plethora of runes, but with the spurt of new Ringwielders in recent weeks (in contrast to me being the only Ringwielder logged on), this guide has grown to answer common questions as well.
Races
Personally, I pick races & guilds based on an envisioned theme (i.e. pseudo-roleplaying). Because that's the way I roll (pun intended), I can only provide general guidelines for those whose real question may be "what's the best Ringwielder race?"
Ringwielders are very accommodating to any playstyle (e.g. melee, spellcaster, or something in between), so you have to that into consideration. In general, well-rounded stats are important, as we have four primary stats (intelligence, willpower, charisma and perception); and if you want to be a jack-of-all-trades, then the physical stats are of importance as well.
Joining
I don't know the precise requirements, as I've been denied for both insufficient rune lore (with few quest points) and lack of deeds (with little-to-no rune lore). I think quest points weigh more than rune lore.
Easy quests you can do with no fighting include At'lordrith's Riddle, Death's Gate, the Devonshire Murder, the Inner Sanctum, the Lost Kentaur and the Source of the Slime.
The assassination quest has minimal-to-no fighting required. Gwalin's Quandary, Hardin's Gauntlet and the Dunwich Mystery require fighting, but they are routinely completed (incidentally), so the quest items may already be readily available for you.
There are other easy quests as well, such as the trivia quest, but these are the ones that can be completed the quickest, IMO.
Petitioning
`Help runes' describes how your "runespace" is determined (i.e. how many runes you are allowed), so read it carefully!
New Runes
To quote that help file: "[Ahrikol] holds in high regard those with a strong innate sense of ethical integrity, he also recognizes that the world requires difficult moral choices of one and appreciates those willing to make hard decisions."
I believe that advocates a Diabolic Ordered alignment: On several occasions I've been refused runes while Saintly Ordered, but then granted those same runes after correcting my alignment to D/O (with no other significant changes in stats/skills).
I have not tried petitioning while Chaotic Diabolic, but I have it on good word that as of ~2010/01/15, Ahrikhol himself is C/D; perhaps C/D would allow even more runespace.
Removing Runes
The help file says, "Ahrikol will only perform it at extremely lengthy intervals." This is actually an understatement! I removed a rune in 2009 November, and Ahrikol still won't permit me to remove another. That's nearly 3 RL months, as of 2010 January 28.
Runes (Getting Started)
There are a myriad of runes available to ringwielders and perhaps just as many different playstyles, so it may seem overwhelming which runes to select.
No two ringwielders will have the exact same runes (or at least, I should hope not), but I wish to provide advice to get you started and help your decision-making.
Initial Runes (Enhancements)
Newly appointed soldiers invariably ask, "So what runes should I take? How many runes can I start with?" While I can't precisely answer the second question, I can offer that I've never had a ringwielder who couldn't take the runes I suggest for the first question:
- Start with the enhancements runes for your primary stats: Thabtka (intelligence), krah-li (willpower), ekaschos (charisma) and qiange (perception).
- You may also select the other stat runes, depending on your playstyle/preference (but personally, I always do): Khyaros (strength), omavistis (constitution) and vanar (dexterity).
The stat enhancement runes are a good (and cheap) foundation, no matter what your playstyle is.
- Most ringwielders would agree the must-have rune for all wraiths is memtholin (spiritual energy), which greatly buffs one's centering and channeling.
- Depending on your playstyle, other must-have may include klizmaphex (recuperation) and uvmodath (access/enhance strength skills, particularly armour adaptation.)
- Most ringwielders select irimdes (quickness) and/or hae-kadzi, which are boons in both combat and travel.
Offensive Runes
Where you start running into debate is when deciding which attack runes to select. There honestly aren't any "best" runes (other than "all runes"), but here's some rules-of-thumb for you to consider:
- If you don't have many spec points (i.e. low level), you should focus on a line. For example, choose to specialize in aeromancy before branching out to other types.
- You probably want to take advantage of your race's natural abilities; e.g. pyromancy for phaethon or necromancy for nylocs.
- The "best" attack rune is whatever your opponent is vulnerable to. If you're fighting a fiery foe, cold is your friend. If you are strugging with an adversary subsisting of stone, then acid may be your solution.
- Work towards an AoE rune (area attack -- originally "Area of Effect") for dealing with multiple opponents. It's important to note, however, that Ringwielder AoE are risky in groups! Most, if not all, have a chance of striking friends & neutrals (to varying degrees). Practice before you spam, or you'll have some very unhappy teammates and/or dead followers.
- If you can afford the spec/runespace, take a secondary attack rune in case your primary attack rune is resisted by a particular opponent. As you conquer more and more powerful foes, you will find they are more and more resistant to various damage types.
- Different damage types may have different side effects. For example, electricity tends to shock & stun, while cold can have a slowing effect. I believe fire does the most raw damage.
- If you're a melee warrior, then ironically the active defense runes offer some nice ways to augment your damage. (Gevel and lgladzi)
Defensive Runes
- Ciiv (slashing resistance), n'rax (crushing resistance) and zadash (piercing resistance) are very popular runes to start with, because they protect against the most common damage types.
- Specific defense runes (e.g. uanedryl) tend to be more protective and far less costly than generalized defense runes (e.g. kaonfar).
- Cover your weaknesses: If you're a slaan, then wojun, rethnal and/or aphari are no-brainers.
Miscellaneous Runes
The various "utility runes" (which I include both utility runes and teleportation runes) are just that -- they're utilitarian. They won't help you defeat foes faster or make you more durable, but they do make life easier or even make the game experience more enjoyable.
- Cover your weaknesses: If you're allergic to sunlight or dazzled by it, then laelinak (light control) may be your answer.
- Make up for deficiencies:
- If you can't fly, then aerinax (flight) grants you that ability. (And even if you can fly, aerinax can be a lifesaver when your wings are amputated, or you've died and lost your ring of flight.)
- If you can't see in the dark, then colapha (night vision) may correct that.
- Mitigate annoyances:
- If you hate traveling across the oceans to reaffirm your allegiance to Ahrikol, then teleportation runes such as ispiri (teleport home) may be your new means of travel.
- Does it seem as if you can never carry enough loot? You may want to check out teleportation runes such as glochar (teleportation) or xantaras (personal microcosm).
- Tired of camping Lucanius's for lenses of insight? Look no further than xiriaq (insight).
Runes (Annotated)
In this section, I am not recommending runes to choose (see the previous section), but rather providing insight into the runes I've tried. If a rune isn't listed here, it doesn't mean it's "bad," I simply haven't had experience with it. Conversely, if a rune is listed here, that doesn't make it "good" either; I've merely had the misfortune of being stuck with it.
Although this is "my" guide, feel free to correct or update this section with your own experiences.
Offensive Runes
I refer to "offensive runes" as any rune that does damage to your foes, making them fall faster. That includes the official attack runes, along with some of the active defense runes.
Auras
Offensive auras are excellent for new ringwielders: Turn them on, and the monsters hurt themselves while trying to harm you! This is great against melee foes, which most newbie monsters are.
- Gevel (vampiric aura): With Necromancy I, I don't notice the "channeled energy." You wouldn't want to use this against undead, either.
- Lgladzi (cold aura): I haven't used this, but list it for completeness.
Slaying
"Slaying runes" can immediately finish a foe when they're mortally wounded.
- Arkonaad (detonate): I haven't used this, but include it here just for completeness.
- B'ryzmkel (shatter): A few creatures resist this (e.g. scavdreks), but I've seen it even slay creatures that had cold affinity/was strengthened by it! This rune doesn't actually cause foes to shatter (i.e. they still leave a corpse, where appropriate).
- Vilix (drink life): This rune seems to get resisted a lot; i.e. it's less successful slaying foes than b'ryzmkel (shatter), even with my higher necromancy than cryomancy. For example, it doesn't work against undead at all -- it even heals them. Vilix can leech both health and spirit, but with my Necromancy I, the gains are minimal, if any.
Single Target
"Single target" attack runes focus on one foe at a time.
- Aagmyn (chaos bolt): Doesn't seem fully resisted by much (other than the obvious), but the Requirements to Use are pretty steep!
- B'padhax (dispel magick): I still haven't used this one, but it seems very potent.
- Gaj (poison): Untested, but it seems like a good rune that theoretically wouldn't be resisted by many living beings.
- Somnverax (silence):
- This rune sometimes hit objects in the room, smashing then (i.e. destroying them). I have not observed this unwanted behaviors since low level, so either it's been removed or a matter of one's control skill.
- I haven't ever conclusively observed its silencing side effect (e.g. Reanada babbles on just fine), so I don't know if it's because my control skills are too low, or there's no indication when it is successful, or a monster's combat chats aren't affected.
Area Attacks
In general, Ringwielder AoE attacks will hit everyone in the room including neutrals, and sometimes even followers & friends. Some AoE seem more likely to hit friends & followers than others.
- Grynovsk (eskaric cloud): This is a DoT (damage over time), not direct damage! Also note the rune's detailed description describes it as "entropically-infused esakara." In my experience, that's accurate because loirekthen resist it and spirits are barely affected. The likelihood of grynovsk hitting followers & friends seems to depend on their size or perhaps dodge.
- Ravarak (force blast): A nice explosion, good against stone golems and other physically resistant foes; however, the force can also damage items carried by the victims. I haven't tried it with friendlies to know how frequently it may hit them, but it certainly nails neutrals.
- Zerivalak (chain lightning): You can zap yourself with this on occasion, so until you have good control with it, be wary using it when severely injured. With no specialization in aeromancy, it seems decent at avoiding friendlies & neutrals; definitely better than grynovsk and ravarak.
Defensive Runes
I define "defensive runes" to mean runes that either make you more difficult to damage, or makes your foes less harmful. So this actually includes several attack runes along with the obvious passive defense runes.
Personal
- Batarim (electrical resistance): If you are a nyloc, you really need this. In my experience, electricity is even more fatal to nylocs than light.
- Kaonfar (adaptive resistance): Overall, I think this is a great rune, but I wouldn't rush to get it if you are lower level:
- Ciiv (slashing resistance), n'rax (crushing resistance) and zadash (piercing resistance) go a lot further for you since they're ubiquitous damage types, and barely cost you spirit to use.
- The problem with kaonfar, particularly at low levels, is that it can be very draining on your spirit while it "ramps up." Even at mid-levels, I've been in some fights where I was completely out of spirit within a few rounds because the foe did so many damage types, kaonfar sapped all my spirit.
- My theory is that kaonfar can work in conjunction with the more specific resistance runes; i.e. if you have fire resistance, it will cost less spirit & time for kaonfar to ramp up against fire. I have not made the effort to test this yet.
- Uanedryl (necromancy resistance): Besides its resistance (entropic), it's interesting to note it also grants recuperation degree II specialty access.
Single Target Debuffs
- Czon (chaos disjunction) can be used, among other things, to strip a pesky Chaos Knight of hir protective parageos.
Area Debuffs
- Domwrelin (mana shunt): I haven't used this rune yet, but I can envision situations where preventing your opponent from using magic is worth the rune's tradeoff. Hypothetical situations:
- Defeating pure spellcasters, whose magic far surpasses your own and/or are weaker melee fighters.
- Neutralizing bezhuldaars (by luring them in) who would disable your Ring of Power anyways.
- Prevent foes who teleport you or themselves to safety
- Poltradn (slowness field): Note this rune behaves like an AoE; it does not "bathe your immediate surroundings." This rune only attacks your current opponents; it cannot be used to start a fight, does not aggro neutrals, and won't affect foes who join afterwards.
Enhancement Runes
I define "enhancement runes" to be runes that make you better in combat. That include both the official enhancement runes and some of the utility runes.
- Hae-kadzi (haste): I'd say hae-kadzi is preferable to irimdes (quickness) because it's more effective, albeit it takes more spirit to run. But a more intriguing question is, why not both? :)
- Irimdes (quickness): Its description can be misunderstood ("long-term use improves the user's natural quickness"). It can [slowly] raise your quickness towards your specialty max, but training is still more effective.
