this started somewhere around a SCOP whine and ended up in a MM "discussion"
anyway - shall we take down MM features one by one, as we did with most other features of other guilds in this forums? I guess not, as it would take away 50% of the MM-PR
shall we then proceed to looking for counters for those features? that would take away the last bits of the MM-PR
let's just stick to what MM players stated here then, shall we?
MM grind slower than malee occ guilds I know it wasn't stated by Cel, but agreed to
certainly not slower than a solo kender or a solo Ranger, but those are sneaker-guilds (not purely malee, hence the still not recoded status of them both) ... especially when it's a MM+AA
I'd wonder if a solo Calian or a solo Neidar can grind faster than a solo MM with similar guild-stat - I very much doubt that, considering the size difference matters much more than the number of kills for the exp-grind (this you seem to be forgetting)
example: I know people ran tests with such opponents as yeti and bounced it for exp - 15-20min bouncing solo = slight+ progress on a reasonable mortal-level without death-recovery ... beat that with any other grind grounds? and how long does it take a MM to solo the yeti + recover the mana lost in the process? guess that's one of the reasons yeti has been changed over time
years ago (it might have changed since than, of course) Etanukar (surely not wraith by that time) was able to clean Doll + 4 s-elves quicker than Laurel BDA/bm (the winner of the Arena back then) killed 1 s-elf ...
in PvP MM's have been nerfed
I'd guess that's why Etanukar decided to cast the oliphaunt-curse on Xar and block his exit on a huge NPC (outside of our long-year war-area)?
nevermind that one tho - you wrote yourself about cleansing and healing and countering your magic ... let's see:
cleansing:
2 occ guilds + 1 lay guild are able to do that; I have yet to witness a Herald cleansing away a BB tho ... maybe Earth? anyway - that's all 3 goodie guilds with people in them who don't like to help just about anyone who happened to be MM target (and that's perfectly fine in regards to those guilds' RP)
in old tales the Minstrels had also a chance to cleanse poisons with their healing songs ... but I've never seen this happen, so I consider that a fairy-tale
but what if MM decide to go after a baddie - who can cleanse them?
healing:
same as above with the addition of Minstrels, PoTs and EW (yes, they do have a healing spell after all ... nevermind it's usage possibilities ...)
it requires only 2 strategic spells of 1 MM to make it virtually impossible to outheal their effect by one Ranger
don't know about SCOP, but I'd guess Minstrels, PoT and EW are even worse there ... so what's left? skunk berries or 1 healing herb per minute munching?
magic-resistance items:
this is called armour in malee fights ... for some reason malee-guilds are not able to train all those magic spell skills up to the same level as defence/parry/etc.
but let's not go that way - let's tackle it from another angle: to be prepared the victim has to know it is being a target, stalked, scried, etc. ... how does s/he know it when MMs can do it on invis and only 1-2(?) guilds can "spot" them doing it (at least one can do that, but only if the spot action is performed actively - dunno about SCOP features)
all it takes is cast 1 spell when on invis (Laurel has received "gifts" from MM's in the same second they came out of invis numerous times) and the second spell within a few seconds before the victim runs ... you don't have to follow her/him ... not with your spells
it's even better if you know where the victim will have to run and place one of your funny location spells there ...
I didn't even mention the small fact that you gals (pun intended) can stack your most powerful spells on one target ...
it's not like block stacks one exit anymore ...
so - if someone doesn't know MMs are after her/him then s/he surely will NOT work for hours to stack MM counter features (including weapons that help with killing your rotting bodies) ... just to log out because her/his time for Gen has run out
I don't support the MM whine by the way - Laurel has some features to counter them, always has at least basic preparations for such an encounter and has been target to MM spells over and over again (sometimes it was pretty fucking close, but it's not like I fear Laurel's death) ... I just wished Laurel had more chances to slay MMs as well ... not just endure another friendly combo of double-BB + strategic stat-cloud
the above is just to have some things straight - I don't intend to go into specific guild abilities, spells, counters, etc. here
enjoy the MM "discussion"