Mechalibur

Your servile/shaper reputation. High means you agree with shaper ideals, low means you don't (and generally think serviles should be free). Affects your ability to join factions and some other stuff.

For what's it worth, you don't really need to hold on to them. He directs you to locations that have 10+ potted plants, and most of the tall potted plants aren't even accessible until you reach the second part of his quest (it adds a new dialogue option that opens them up)

Oh that's actually pretty significant since the gloves of spell mastery are excellent. Then again, joining the Takers before you reach Fort Muck seems pretty unlikely.

Murdering Pinner is never required, although that's one of the ways to complete the Taker's "Kill a Leader" entry quest.

I don't think you can rejoin any factions.

A lot of that guide doesn't really work for Infestation any more. Sabotaging a facility will now turn that faction's main city hostile. A lot of the rewards are different now too (letting the Eye sap your stats I think gives a pretty mediocre cloak)

If you have a barzite badge, you can bypass the fight even with canister usage, I believe.

Cockatrice no longer has the control penalty it did in Mutagen. It also has a higher base level and base hp. It's not amazing, still, but I think it's perfectly fine to use, especially if you got all 6 levels in the training.

It might be an oversight that anyone can teach them. You get 4 canisters of Cockatrice, which is 2 more than most creations have, so it's kind of weird you can get 2 levels of training on top of it. Although Stalkthorns also have 4 canisters despite plenty of people teaching them, so maybe not!

Have to agree with you. It's kind of disappointing how little power you're actually getting from the Takers. You have to go through so many hoops to even get training in the first place, when the Awakened offer the same training right away. It guess it makes sense from a story perspective, since Tuldaric is the one who invented augmentation and the other faction require his research before offering the training (although Phariton doesn't seem to require you be augmented, which is interesting). I guess the biggest difference is the canisters they offer you (either in Benerii-Uss or behind Syros) can be obtained through violent means unlike the Barzite canisters which require you to do Barzite quests. The power gaming option all comes down to Barzahl's superior storage methods 😄

I feel like thematically, a person willing to summon a drakon should be perfectly willing to consume canisters 😄

5 is the first warning, 10 is the second.

I double checked my Awakened file where I never joined the Takers. I got both of those canisters. I think the servant mind in Benerii-Uss power can unlock them for you.

Do you actually need to join the Takers for that canister though? I was the under the impression you can get it even if they're hostile.

Sabotaging or stealing notes in the magus complex/Radiant College will turn that faction's main city hostile.

I genuinely have not been able to find any benefits to joining them.

So I guess my optimization strategy would be: Say pro-servile things. Join the Servants using leadership. Loot the Warrens and buy whatever cheap training you want from Tyallea. When you want to move on to the highest level training, join the Awakened, loot the room by Pinner with the key she gives you and get augmented by Tuldaric. Then stick with them until you've done all the quests that require Takers not to be hostile, go to Darian to change your rep, then join the Barzites and clean house.

From a purely optimization standpoint: Servants and Awakened are good for early training access. You don't even need to make it to the loyalist encampment any more, Tyallea will teach you pretty much everything, including rotghroths. You can even bypass the reputation check with leadership. The downside is joining the Servants makes the Takers hostile, you can't enter their town or do any of their quests while aligned. The Awakened get you pretty easy access to every spell and creation (other than Cockatrice) and don't turn anyone hostile. All the really good stuff, however, is with the Barzites. 6 canisters require the barzite badge, and can't be bypassed by killing Barzahl. You can get an extra rank in quick action for 2,000 coins if you join them. There's a unique charm you can get if you give them an extra conduit shard. They're the only faction that teaches Creat Cockatrice (you can get a total skill of 6 this way). And they give access to shaper record turn in for lots of cash and xp. Downside is Takers and the Loyalist encampment turns hostile. Takers... are a role playing choice. I was unable to find any value in joining from a gameplay perspective. The Awakened get you all the same training so much earlier.

If you're with the Awakened, the captain in Triola can give you one. You don't really need one though, the biggest obstacle in getting to Taker lands isn't the Takers themselves in my experience.

Take a deep breath I think it's a rogue thahd you can do it to in the second zone. Most rogues can't be pacified with leadership though, so he's not really lying in that particular instance.

I think Nora was always like that. Too bad the game never goes into detail about why she's so loyal to him.

Certain scripted encounters allow you to calm down or control rogues with leadership. It's not a regular skill you can use at your discretion.

Jeff did a pass on all the dialogue, so it wouldn't surprise me if it's new. The game is also pretty frank about Zakary's pathetic nature. So many lines of dialogue with him reference his lack of talent, integrity, or backbone.

Acid - Spray Crystal and Searing Spray (at level 2+). There's no acid baton. Shocked - Glaahk passive Shocking Skin, maybe? Never actually tried it, not very reliable since they need to be hit by melee. Additionally Essence Lash will only inflict it at level 2 or higher. Burning: Essence Purge needs to be level 2, for what it's worth. So Ur-Drakons can't inflict it with their version of Essence Purge There's an ice DoT in the files called Frozen, but it doesn't actually seem to be possible to inflict.

I'm starting to suspect Ornks may not be the strongest creation.