Delicious Vlish

In all fairness, the battle magic servile and the mental magic servile are probably one in the same.

I have one. 'theyjustwontstaydead'.

Fills the area with hostile shades, spectres, and undead.

One thing. The mobs are larger. Instead of a cryodryak and some cannon fodder, you face an army of cryos. And some cannon fodder. Eyebeasts with armies of rotterthingamajigs. It is a numbers game.

Wands, crystals, etc, not enough of them in this game. Not enough supplies. You run dry way to quickly. There is a comparable number of supplies I think to match G3, but the sheer number of enemies have changed the dynamic. What was almost enough for G3 is petty and insignificant now. No where near enough.

All of the higher level creations shrug off strong daze in a round or two. Strong daze does not feel as strong as it once was. Still good for slowing down the cannon fodder types to give you some breathing room. That, and strong daze comes way to late in the game. Regular daze starts wearing out entirely to quickly. Once you hit the Fens, daze is a dicey effort.

Acid shower and running like hell is the best way to deal with wingbolts, which hurt like hell, resist dazing entirely to much, and resist your hard hitting magic assaults. Even more effective if you can slow them so you can stay out of reach of their deadly breath attack. Some of those wingbolts can hit you for over 200 damage a shot. (Which is why the shaper/lifecrafter class has nightmares)

Also, some monsters regenerate way to fast. Magic, namely the lightning aura or acid damage, is the best way to wear stuff down.

Well, acid shower, aura of flames, both are really good for softening mobs or even outright killing of cannon fodder foes. Essence orbs or lances is a great opening volley to soften up a pack. The servile still has the primary weakness of any melee character, the ability to process mobs. By hamstringing all of his foes, the servile holds a better chance of sucess.

That, and there are some monsters that you just don't want to melee. Like spiny types. Batons kill one monster at a time, and still have their place. Some battle magic just makes crowd liquidation easer and less time consuming.

I have one roaring right along, just met with Alwan and is on his way to find the safehouse. Mech 12, leadership 8, no points invested in melee skills or str or dex. I bought 2 points in spellcraft before killing Shalia. Got lucky and got a Thahdskin tunic in the docks area. Hitting for about 60 or so damage with a steel sword. Blessed, I can crack 100 damage on a really good shot.

Battle magic and mental magic are both at 4. No points in endurance just yet. Ice Bolt is doing about 80 damage a shot, a little more or a little less on some foes. Searer is leaving clawbugs at a sliver and killing them the next round.

Observation note on dedicated build. NOT AN AGENT. Hit and run not needed. I can safely stand in the thick of melee and just lay waste. I take a few hits, but parry seems to block enough.

Effective play style: Turtle Mage.

Is it just me or do Serviles have some sort of resistance? I don't remember my warriors being this sturdy.

Servile runs out of gas faster than an Agent though. I can only fire off four or five ice blasts before the green bar hits empty. And then I am forced to resort to stabbing stuff to death, which is not a problem.

Anybody catch the part about alphas and betas coming from the same stock as serviles?

And the loin cloth joke?

I finally took some screen shots so I could get a close look at them, they dissapear in seconds.

In G4 you find out that battle alphas and battle betas share the same stock as serviles.

No.

Next question.

D'oh, I was thinking of the freehold.

Nevermind.

Vlish are the new Jello.

There is always room for Vlish.

It is not a person you are looking for, but a zone.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

I think that with time, and some refinement, the Servile will come out as the Red Mage / Red Wizard of G4.

Melee skills? Don't need them. Really. There are items that will boost your melee skills. Missile skills? A few points are worth having. Leadership could probably be kept at 8 and then rely on items. Blessing magic may be able to be kept at base. Items will boost it considerably. Mechanics is probably safe at 10 or 12. Mental magic out the wazoo, a couple of points in to battle magic and some items, and everything else in to physical stats. Int and endurance probably.

Provided you get the right items, what you end up with:

High health, hard hitting melee ability, reasonable buffing abilities, a decent energy pool, enough mental fireworks to scramble an entire colony of shapers, and no real weaknesses. With a couple of swap out items, you can shape anything really. I can not find a single drawback.

You wind up with a long nosed terminator.

Ideal gear is still up for discussion, but the Legs of the Tyrant are the first item up for mention.

And you know, you could even skip out on missile weapon skills and just stick with swords... Sure, batons are powerful, but it is painfully easy to reach lightning aura and essence orbs as a Servile. Really, even though I haven't done it yet, it shouldn't be that hard to get 9/9 battle magic mental magic. You don't need jacked battle magic like the Agents of long ago, you just need an opening volley to soften up the crowd.

Hugging and or squeezing a Vlish will get you exactly what you deserve.

No reaper baton listed.

I know I've found one, but can never remember where.

Thahdskin tunic is a random drop. Some times I get it, some times I don't.

I really like it when I get it.

At first I thought the Doppleganger Vlish was a punishment meant especially for me and all my talk about Vlish being the ultimate creation.

I was faced with my worst fear. Uber Vlish. I mean the real deal hardcore Godlike Vlish that shapers have nightmares about.

I remember early on in the beta I walked in to those Vlish infested woods.

Good grief.

In moments, I do mean moments, once the first few Vlish called for help, it was over. All my creations, toasted. Warrior, toasted. Went down hard and fast.

I am really glad that Jeff made changes to enemy Vlish. Still nasty, but not instantly fantastically lethal.

My servile got hosed to.

And the Doppleganger Vlish in Thornton. Oh cripes. I am glad that Jeff toned him down.

And the Hive Mind Vlish in the area with Trajkovite Dryak... Criminy!

All these new Vlish, still no Tasty Vlish. Jeff had better get it right by G5.

I think the dialog bits where you are forced in to combat with your fragile lifecrafter in the front of your creations has turned me off from lifecrafters. Like when you have to deal with the drakons, and have to go fight whatsisname. The game script moves you and your creations to the arena, with you OUT FRONT. Poof. A couple of firebreaths later, you are burnt to a cinder. Or chomped.

Oh the forged gene humanity.

Stuffit went and left behind a GLARING backdoor opportunity with OSX, is riddled with bugs, and all kinds of security features. (Some of which we found out about during the beta no less)

Apple went and gave them the bird by adding in built in compression utilities that offer better compression than anything stuffit offers.

I did pretty much the same thing, only I used Terror to give me some breathing room when I needed it.

I did clear the windswept farms. I did not do the optional area with this servile.

I don't remember exact stats. Maybe 8 strength at the end, with items. Int was, hrm, 10? Mech and leadership were both at base 10, higher with items. Spellcraft was raised a few times, I think after I bought training. He was a murderous little bastard.

And he was made before the revamping of the character classes where the servile started with four strength.

Had some melee, higher missile skills, a little bit of quick action and parry, but mostly from items.

In my prototype build, Jeff said my combat skills were gruesomely neglected. They looked that way, but with buffing abilities, I'd never miss.

No creations. I think mental magic was 9 or 10. Blessing magic was, hm, lower, but there are items to boost that. Well, I could have summoned creations. I really didn't bother with it much.

He was stealthy, but he had killed a great number of shapers. He may or may not sneak past creations, but he had it in for shapers. I'd scramble their creations brains, make them go rogue, and then run down the shaper like the vengeful little servile I was. Terror kept the masses away from me. I'd walk through an area in combat mode, hasted, and first sign of a monster, terror, daze, dominate, charm, whatever the situation demanded, and then run down and shoot anything that moved. From items alone I had enough battle magic to cast acid shower and the lightning aura spell. And essence orbs too. All from items. Mass Madness when you get it is very nice.

I especially liked the fight with the infiltrator in the servile cultist encampment. Every time he summoned something, I'd make it go rogue against him. Soon, he was overwhelmed.

To beat the snot out of the infiltrators, you need a submission baton and or a reaper baton if you can get one. Then you need some wrack, shackles, etc, and strong mental magic.

Mental magic is the KEY element in this game. More so than battle magic. There are some tough fights. Maintaining control is vital now, no joke. Since monsters can move more than they used to and still tag you, you must shut them down. Terror was probably my most used spell.

The ability to daze and then snipe at will with a baton while blessed and hasted will take you to nearly the endgame with no effort at all.

Terror is more important than ever now.

Shock Trooper.

Much was already said on her either being a weak warrior or a weak shaper. The lack of magic hurts quite a bit. She is well, the challenge class.

Jeff and I exchanged quite a few emails. The Shock Trooper now is a LOT better than she was. Earlier in beta, she started with 2 str, 2 dex, and only 2 endurance. She didn't get many hit points either at that stage. She was basically just a shaper with melee skills, and a strong breeze was more than enough to finish her off. She had 2 in melee, 2 in missiles, and that was it. Her cheap melee skill costs wore out quickly, and pumping those skills left her critically weak in other areas.

As she is now, she does have some strength. She is NOT a true melee class. You are free to pump shaping out the wazoo. It is possible to make creations strong enough that they don't need magic support. Add some dex, crank missile weapons, and you have a reasonably powerful character. She does not do well in the thick of melee, but at range, she can indeed, hold her own. Outfit her with the Tyrant pant thingies, that add +3 to melee skills and vampiric effect for those moments when you must melee, and give her the Captian's Shiv to swap to when she needs to cast blessing magic. And it is possible to shut down everything on the screen with a pack of vlish and a submission baton.

I will stick my tentacle out here and say it right now, the Servile is now the strongest class. Warrior hit points, buffs, mental magic to shut down the bane of all warriors, mobs, and the ability to literally buff themselves up to Godlike levels for melee. The ability to clear 500 or 600 hit points. With strong blessing magic and reasonable investment in melee skills, you can zip off 200 or more damage with a reaper baton. Or go to town with the oozing blade. Most of the endgame drakons were biting me for like 30 damage when they managed to connect, once I had all my protective buffs up and running.

Good stuff I tells ya.