The new found lack of diversity on AR

[divsky]

Anyone notice that all of these changes has all but killed off a huge ammount of classes from AR? And the same thing goes for races. You type who anymore and all you see are the following races:

Human
Duergar/Dwarf
Elf/Drow
Half-Elf

And maybe the occasional slith or halfling mixed in there. And the same goes for classes. Let's not count all the newbies below level 10, because they don't know any better. All you see is this:

Warrior
Berserker
Shaman
Invoker
Dark Knight
Paladin

And of course the occasional bard thrown in there, but those don't really count.

So what happened to all the avians? The giants? The illusionists? The ninjas? The thieves? I'm going out on a limb and saying they all got the atomic bomb of balance dropped on them, killing off the vast majority of the population and leaving the survivors scratching their head trying to figure out what happened as they slowly die of radiation poisoning. There were some pretty dramatic balance changes done to these races and classes. Mental damage weapons everywhere. Changes to flight and trip. Stat adjustments. Haste being gimped horribly (if you havn't tried it out yet, it's barely worth using anymore), thieves and ninjas getting hurt hard by changes in hide, blackjack and strangle.

Anyone else getting tired of seeing all the same classes now? Anyone else think there's some major balance issues that need to be addressed with all of these new changes? Sure, things may be more interesting.. but I really wouldn't say the classes and races are balanced.

[Louis]

you've pretty much answered all of your questions.. i guess they were rhetorical questions.

i agree that some races/classes have lost a lot of their selling points. but all of the ones that have lost something also gained something in the trade.. so it looks like you have to weigh whether your sold or not on the new stuff they get.. and it may be that a lot of people aren't sold yet.

[Davairus]

For giants/avians I'll list the reasons those shouldnt be played much in order - frostbrand sword, skull-headed mace. (vuln weapons that overcome the opponents favoured weapon)

[Static Impulse]

That's true. You don't see much difference in character types these days. And as Davarius said it is probably due to the major "balancing" to several of those classes. I for one am still plugging along with my ninja despite I have the hide and strangle issue. I want to get to fifty and try out some of the new stuff like fan ability that female ninjas got. (by the way I thought that a gender based skill like that was a really cool idea) There wasn't that many level 50 ninjas before the balance, I have a feeling there won't be that many more unless some changes are made. Heh, my true opinion is that most of us veteran players don't want a challenge. We want to stick with what we know is good and keep playing them. Just my opinion mind you, always could be wrong.

[Esivole]

Speaking strictly on over played classes right now. I grow tired of seeing Paladin after Paladin, all with the basic general idea. Flamestrike, wrath... with all their wonderfully requested equipment and what not. Two hours blindness, stumbling around, getting severe amounts of damage through sanc (maybe I am just bitter). Just tired of seeing them, maybe seeing more High level anything would be nice. I agree with Divsky over all though.

[Davairus]

By the way here is the actual order of popularity of race picks (includes level 1s which take a couple weeks to delete if left unplayed):

human
elf (divide by factor of 2)
drow
avian
dwarf
half-elf
werebeast (divide by factor of 2)
fire giant
duergar
gnome
minotaur
slith
storm (divide by factor of 2)
stone

Gnomes are more popular than stone giants! haha

[Mendek]

List the classes to.

Don't see any healers now that they don't have a cabal left.
Don't see illusionists now that haste sucks and they're limited to one cabal in one alignment.
Don't see monks because they haven't had any changes and get owned from what I've seen.

Personally, about all I've ranked with lately were thieves and ninja.

[Grayden]

That's really funny i noticed the lack also so i just started a halfling thief, so in saying this make sure you support the halfling thief all you can, lol. by that i mean keep an eye on the one with pry.

Grayden Grim

[Louis]

Disregarding the cool factors of playing specific races (its cool to play a fire giant vs a stone for example), here is how I would rate the races right now and what I think would be smart to play considering all the recent confusion.

human
slith
elf
drow
werebeast
dwarf
duergar
avian
half-elf
minotaur
gnome
stone
storm
fire giant

The question is, do the hard-to-play races need to be revitalized, or do the easier-to-play races need to be equally cut down? A lot of equally strong races, or a lot of equally vulnerable ones?

[Sebryn]

Why aren't halflings included in either list?

[dashpunk217]

yeah! i love my halfling bard....halflings f'in rule

[Louis]

oh because I just copy/pasted Dav's list. i go with the flow.

i'd put halflings either above elf, or above werebeast. i think i would put them above elf.

[pip]

I love lamp.

[raginggnome]

Its seems to me that giants are gimped,trip still rapes them.. More ways to slay them with vulns and with rage pretty much sucking crap imo and so many skills to learn and it take 3 practices to learn one skill when you get two practices a level their insane hp take a hit... And drows and elves are to hard to roll, as are alot of other races, its just not worth it to spend 6 trains to get your stats maxed(60 less hp on an allready frail race). Talk about run on sentences, eh?
Just a few reasons of the lack of diversity, or at least reasons that make me keep playing the same race/classes combos over and over again.

[Devin_Smoth]

Just out of curiosity, how many new players are we getting? I mean, most of the ones that post here, I recognize as being veterans even when I started playing... and I've been playing for a year now.

The point is, the people that are choosing the races are still the same ones who have always been doing it.

As for me, I've noticed an absolute ton of changes to the game since I left and came back (a period of about three months). They are not exactly newbie friendly (or maybe it's just me). So... we don't even seem to have as many players as we used to.

Because we don't have as many players, we have less of each type of race/class. And the people who are used to the game already are picking the race/class combos that are going to kick butt in game, because they're worried about continuing their long record of pks and such.

One explanation of why we are having fewer of each class and race.

(On a total side note, I play a bard!!!!)

[Davairus]

We have been seeing basket cases like Tegul, Gannon, Balak's fire berserker (forgot name) and Anarenth, who get pwnt before you even add the vuln weapons into the picture - which is obviously too effective. So its no surprise that nobody wants to play a giant now. Taurth was doing fine besides the vuln weapons.

[pip]

What in the hell is diversity?

[Kalist19]

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe diversitiy was the name of an old, old wooden ship that was used sometime in the civil war era...

[Esivole]

Diversity, the best way for me to understand it would be....
We have sixteen races and fourteen (right now) classes to choose from. If only five of those races and five of those classes were chosen, we would lack difference, everyone would start to look the same. We would lack 'Diversity'. Not of what we can chose, but what is chosen.

As a second thought, ever ate the same thing for a month straight? kinda got old after a while, didn't it? same thing here.

[Grayden]

devin said somthing interesting, new people dont post thoe sorry i keep encouraging it but dose not take.

grim