Etherdrifter

Alas, I think you're quite right there, and that's rather the "deathknell" for me as far as a premium wurm experience is considered.

Hrm... A device I cannot imp (so likely would be unable to use), that would cause absolute havock to my home (I live up a mountain we hedged in to keep critters from wandering off) But... It would enrich the game world by giving crafters an endgame form of travel similar in potency to summon soul... +1 from me, sometimes what we want needs to be put aside for the good of us all. Simple solution to walled in area issue - make it so that if you land on a deed you do not have permissions for, it teleports you to the nearest perimeter instead ("a sudden gust of wind blows you N/S/E/W")

It has been a long while since I last explored this topic; so where is magic on wurm? Last time I wrote one of these was about 2 years ago (https://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/170073-the-state-of-pve-magic-fo/&tab=comments#comment-1734322) This mostly focused on balance, especially between the main 4 and player gods. So where to begin? As it currently stands, priests on wurm are largely extinct as mains in PvE; a survey conducted a short while back indicates that, if you're reading this, then the odds of you maining a priest are roughly the same as the odds you have 4+ priest alts. Each individual god has a few very useful spells that are in high demand, though generally the market for magic on the old cluster is largely extinct. Priests, on wurm, are alts; if this is the intent then the design is excellent and naught should be changed, but if it isn't the intent then something, somewhere, has gone horribly wrong. All of wurm's magic is tied to 2 skills; channeling and faith - faith unlocks the spells and channeling tweaks the RNG in the caster's favour. Faith is ground AFK, very much just pray once per X mins and sermon group till you hit 100. Channel grind is a little different; a loophole was closed a while back for using links to boost spell difficulty beyond a certain level, so high level channel grind is significantly slower now. However, even 50+ channeling is good for most lightweight spells, and at 80+ you'll be landing extremely powerful enchants fairly reliably. Overall, the magical design of wurm is almost entirely geared towards alting (2 skills to level, and you have the perfect enchant-bot), and significant reworking would be required to change this. Tying spells to additional skills other than channeling/faith would likely help here, however this is unlikely to ever happen due to the complexity and whale backlash. In terms of balance between the priests (in PvE), the ordering is (roughly) Mag<Fo<Lib<Vyn with Lib and Vyn pretty close with their pair of enchants. Fo is, situationally, the most useful (rifts with LoF), though outside of that area they're only really good for LT, Courier, Genesis, Humid Drizzle, Lurker in the Woods, and (rarely) Toxic+Venom casts. Genesis, in particular, is popular for breeders who don't have a pet Fo. Mag's Animal/Monster/Legendary Demise, (rarely) Blaze+Flaming aura, Disintegrate, Strongwall, Lurker in the Dark and Stone Strike form a reasonable casting core of both enchants and local spells. They really shine for Disintegrate and Stonewall, two spells everyone in the game eventually *needs*. Vyn has CoC and WoA (the best pair of enchants for skillers), Animal/Monster/Legendary Demise, AoSP, (rarely) frostbrand+glacial, Lurker in the Deep, Mend and Mind Stealer are why Vyn is the enchanting powerhouse. Though, mend offers some local utiltiy by being able to repair un-repairable items. Lib hit hard with BoTD, DM, Animal/Monster/Legendary Demise, Lurker in the Dark, Bloodthirst, Essence Drain, (limited to rifts) SoL, and AoSP give Lib a close second place to Vyn for enchanting powerhouse. They have some of Fo's utility (with DM), a strong weapon enchant (essence drain), the best armour enchant (AoSP), and a powerful tool enchant (BoTD). Overall, each priest has their use, but some are markedly less useful without a lot of travel (Mag and Fo). Fo, I would say, needs to travel the most, whereas Vyn priests can spend their lives chained to altars without losing any potency. With the removal of player gods, some form of balance has returned, though it's a generally tilted towards Vyn and Lib. With regards to priest content; since Sindusk's overhaul a few years ago, the only notable changes to priests have been nerfs, and one buff (humid drizzle being able to remove disease from players which helped out in events). However, there havn't been any real new spells for some time, which has made magic a little stale. It seems unlikely we'll see any new spells in the long run, or, indeed, any mid-late game magics added (a lot of functionality has been given to bless over the years). There has been a big push for crafter content, and priests have not been completely gated from this because they can now manage most tasks (though if you are seeking high QL results you are out of luck!). Still, this is better than the past where new content was entirely gated to priests. In conclusion, magic in wurm is currently geared towards alting, it is "reasonably balanced" with regards to PvE, but it hasn't seen any new content in a long time. The state of magic in wurm is, essentially, one of stale alts and an almost extinct priest-main player base. If this is the developers' vision for priests on wurm (as seems indicated by mechanical design), I congratulate them on a job well done.

Courier cast on flint, flint QL caps cast QL. Gives us a use for flint, isn't going to destroy the high cast market of the whales with 3+ priest alts.

I wonder if caffeinated late game channel grind with double links is now actually viable in a human lifetime.

I think this about sums up how most folks who chose to main (and solo) as a priest feel (and it's why most of us left, or are semi-retired now). In general, wurm is not designed to be played as a priest main, and the developers seem dead set against that kind of play. It took years of people complaining to allow priests to even build walls. The last new PvE spell came in under Sindusk I think, which was a fair few years back now. After that, we've had a couple of nice tweaks (being able to cure disease again was nice), but otherwise nothing major or in any way really useful. Most people on the old cluster have a priest alt, it is actually uncommon for someone not to. This wasn't always the case, but as time has gone on... Well, the evidence suggests it is extremely unlikely for priests to be given any meaningfully unique content gated behind skills other than faith. I'd love to see this idea in the game, but I don't think it will ever make it in.

Reeds are useful things for new players to have around; the option to plant them would be a great way to encourage players to settle somewhere. Also, if someone dirt griefs your area (it has happened) you lose out on beautiful reeds. If balance is an issue, just gate it behind 50 botanize or something (growing of wild plants would fit botany...).

+1 from me, more hedges = more maze options!

Another bump, in the hope that some dev, somewhere, considers this.

I'd rather see this done another way; giving bows an extra buff during optimal conditions. The simple solution is just leave PvP as it is and give PvE the buff (since hardly anyone uses archery because of how much work it takes).

Feel free to stick me on the list for casts (84.5 channeling - Fo)

Release C2013/2014 - "The Good Old Days" Xanadu (Day 0) - The Peak of the Mountain and the world below Xanadu - After the Server Borders Opened Xanadu - 7 Years Later... As for a quote... "Grow a forest, and then set giant wolves on anyone who cuts down a tree!"

So I managed to get things copied over to my database today, here are the monthly averages: Old - New 212 - 268 - July 219 - 276 - August 222 - 320 - September There is a slow and steady increase in the old cluster, and a big one in the new cluster (+44 is not just a blip I can wave off). The old cluster might just be normal churn, but it is up above 200 which is better than last years 195. I'd say we've reached stability of a sort; the growth might just be seasonal shift but we're not in as dire a position as we were last year on the old cluster. However, this position is a precarious one, wurm is definitely under-populated and will remain so for the foreseeable future unless more is done to consider casual players (i.e. those who get a couple of hours 1 day a week to play, and don't want to pay 16 euros for 8 days of play).

Wait a moment, why has this not been implemented yet? It's such a simple spell idea that would positively impact wurm's late game.

Anything unique for forage/botanise?