Anyway I guess it is only for the benefit as I gathered even more data and can present you a full comparison of 3 guilds.
The layout of the file is as follows:
1. general description
2. players and setups
3. executive summary
4. details of reasoning
5. addendum - fight logs
Ad. 1. DESCRIPTION
Due to various reasons I ended up fighting the MM heavily. Over the last year several dozens, if not hundreds of times.
I tested various setups to counter them, found one which was at least giving a fighting chance (the sea-drake armour set from the Nazgul NPC) but due to reasons unknown to me it was nerfed to the ground in terms of magic resistance.
Why this happened I do not know. Would be nice to understand the decision making on that particular thing...
Definitely it was not because of overuse - afaik I was the only one using this armour against MM (goodies cant wear it, and evils don't fight them, you need to have a lot of strength too, as the armours are super heavy - ergo not viable for smaller players).
All the data - except for fights versus Belegorn - come from real fights with intentions to kill the other.
That means "real world" encounters, where players try to get all they can to whack each other. This also means that typically such encounters dont last long. I would say usually 30s-40s. Wizards please consider this - these are no test dummy data, where you can run thousands of iterations. Us mortals we just have one or two shots and that's it.
The encounter duration is imho especially important vs. magic users, as I found dispels are the way to go.
If the dispels don't work the fight is basically one-sided.
Ad. 2. PLAYERS AND SETUPS
The averages I am putting are my best guesstimates, using my own stats and the player rankings as reference.
Yeren, average 250
Weapons: imbued FBB (elem.damage imbued) or imbued BLM+Misty (elem.damage/PEN)
For dispels I use the ancient longsword, usually by replacing the misty weapon
Armour: Sea-Drake set, blackened greaves/bracers, ermine robe, MR rings
Imbues: (usually ~pron) haste/defensive skills/sometimes additional MR (although it is usually just faint general or air/
electricity resistances) and DIS
/sea-drakes were the way to go, UNTIL ME wizards shot it down. Now I am looking for other, but all alternatives are meh in comparison, giving maybe a faint level of resistance/
Magic: stoneskin and strength spells
Other: - wearing DIS enhancing items whenever possible (choker and/or imbues)
- vs MM: illusion protection potions (the most potent ones)
- vs wizards: elemental res I can get
The illusion protection is great, but has two downsides: it is only good for attack (I know when I attack so I can use it) because it lasts <15mins and the potion falls apart in 24h. Overall, there is no counter vs Illusion damage in the game.
Rache, av. ~275
Weapons: imbued Dark Iron sword (probably haste or enhance stones)
Armour: high tier armours, but ofc not top due to lower strength, bracers/greaves mid-top
Imbues: haste, probably in the pron-intense range (judging on dps and number of actions versus mine)
Ratheus, av. ~220
Weapons: imbued Dark Iron sword (probably haste or enhance stones)
Armour: mid tier armours sort of AMC/holly (sic!) glowing, bracers/greaves mid-top
Imbues: approx faint-maximum pron haste (judging on dps and number of actions versus mine)
Beni, av. ~260 (or more...)
Weapons: top-tier enchancers (crimson/blue eye etc)
Armour: mid-high tier armours like holy/kaftan/fiery, oddly not much for greaves/bracers, but likes to wear golden gauntlet
Imbues: faint-pron level haste
Belegorn, av. ~260+
Weapons: top-tier enchancers (crimson/blue eye/staff of skulls)
Armour: high tier armours like fiery/ash-grey, good-top tier stuff on other slots
Imbues: pron level haste or more
All combatants are good players so it is not a big surprise they bring to the table almost all best items.
I am certain, that in the melee department I am pretty close to maximum attainable dps for a melee fighter.
Using best weapons and a ton of imbues with dps in mind (haste/strength). Why this matters? Will come, have patience.
But look: the data comes from a big combatant with best equipment possible. Probably better than majority of genesis population... what happens when a MM decides to hit someone smaller/less prepared? Take a wild guess
Ad. 3. SUMMARY
A. Fights against the MM
Regardless whether vs bigger or smaller player these turn out to be 1vs3 encounters.
That means for each level of damage that I dish out, I receive 3 levels of damage from them.
Big MR mitigation had _only_ the result that I had more time in the fight - that is they needed just a little more time to drop me to my wimp levels (5-7lvl of hp). But the difference was that with MR it took them 30-40s, and without MR it was 20s.
I know what you wizards will say - my DIS is low in comparison, and I have comparatively small MR versus their AC against my melee attacks. Still - I am using best equipment, tons of stuff to upgrade my dps - they use the same. And the fight ends in a 1:3 result. I have no beef them being glass cannons with insane dps. But for the cost of being lousy tanks.
Reality is that they tank as good as the best melee fighters and have dps 3x higher.
One of the reasons is probably that illusion spell. There is no counter to it. There are no items which protect against it.
The emerald potions - as described - are only good for attacks. Field data shows, that a MM can kill pretty much 99% of genesis population in something like 3-4 rounds, as seen for example with Rache's kills on Jordan and Madmartigan (both mid-sized myths).
[and I am writing only about the dps output of that illusion spell, not other stuff like statclouds, fear etc]
One particular thing I want to raise your attention to is the performance of the ancient longsword, which I beckon is a dedicated anti-mage weapon. Thing is, it does not seem to work vs MM in the same way it works against other magic-wielding opponents.
I have no idea why this is the case. As an example, one of the logs in the addendum section will display this: me fighting Rache in GK. That was a 0-10 fight (he dealt me 10lvls harm, I did caused him zero damage). This was a fight where I used the ancient longsword... So not only it does not dispel MM spells, but additionally reduces my dps so much, that I cause zero harm.
One explanation a friend suggested is that the MM shields (stoneskin and whatever) is so strong, it gives the mage an AC rating which is simply too high for the (medicore) ancient longsword to pierce. And since it cannot pierce AC - no dispels and no dps. All ends up 9-0 for the mage team
B. Fights against SoHM and WoHS
Fighting Beni was very interesting, as he is a very knowledgeable player and very close my size. The summary is this:
- if I go full out dps (FBB or dps combo) I loose, quite visibly
- if I go with ancient longsword, he looses, quite visibly
So in my oppinion, the guilds are properly balanced. OK, SoHM is quite OP with their 4? 5? different shields AND the RW AND their dps, but it seems to me a melee fighter can break this with good tactics and preparation.
My experience is that their RW is just the ultimate killer - the more dps I wield, the faster I wimp
But the ancient longsword makes quick work of it. And once one or two of their (both WoHS and SoHM) shields go down, its the end. As they need time to recast their spells, while I - switched to dps mode - just anihilate them.
I wanted to how WoHS fares. And Belegorn is similar size to Beni. As much as I know, Belegorn wore more haste, but the effects were 100% repetition of the SoHM fights: I loose when going dps, and win when goind ancient and dispelling his shields.
So all in one - SoHM and WoHS coded well and balanced. They are glass-cannons allright, but there are counters available.
MM - broken, and broken big. Biggest problem is they are as tanky as top melee and dish out 3x the damage, with a spell that has no counter.
Ad.4. RATIONALES
Tbh I wanted this section to be a detailed walk-through of the mechanic. But I would bore you to death.
So let me say this:
I do understand the logic behind the "4 stats" versus "3 stats" build. And I do understand the importance of discipline stat in genesis. What I do not understand is why one guild has practically an "I WIN" button. Look at the recent 2 months:
Rache's kill on Jordan - about 20s
Rache's kill on Madmartigan - about 30s
Rache's kill on Yeren - about 45s
Now tell me, who else on the server has an ability to erase people in less than half a minute?
Even Cassius in his prime didn't get close to this. You look at your phone and boom - MM executed 3 illusion spells and you drink tea with Lars.
My rationale is this: let the MM be the uber super DPS killer guild. But ffs give us some way or method to defend.
And to all those who will say I am whining: I am not. I enjoy this game and its (sometimes harsh) features. I have been subjected to them more than once... I found a way to deal with a bully gang, I will find one against the morguls
But for the rest of the population.... well sorry. It is looking away for 20s and all your arse and eq is roast.
Ad. 5. ADDENDUMS
Below are the logs from a couple of fights. I will put a brief description of each at the beginning.
