Being a player over level 30, I feel that the reduction of HP for 2 and 3 dot mobs was needed.  Even now it's not a huge one, but it is sometimes noticable.  As for the experience increase, this as well was rather slight, and has not stopped me from getting far better XP raging through quests or missives with a group then I do running through dungeons killing 4 dots over and over, regardless of if there are quests related to those 4 dots.  The 4 dots themselves take so long to kill, even when in a good group, that the value of the dungeon is really the experience of a difficult series of battles, along with the prize offered by a substantially more difficult quest or mob at the end.

As for instant travel, it is already in to a certain extent with the continental teleporters, and the porters which will take you to the far sides of Qalia.  I do believe that in order to survive the lack of instant travel options, the game needs to have instant travel spells of some sort.  As mentioned above, the ability to summon your party members is currently in, but it only functions properly in dungeons, and even then most dungeons are still not considered "dungeons."

I believe the more rapid forms of travel in early days were going to be boats, and that would certainly cut down alot on much of the continental travel which goes on.  I believe that they should go back to the drawing board and think about what they could do to make boats a viable 20+ option, rather then basically restricting it to 30+ and crafters.  This could even be done with some sort of tiny skiff option.

Also, expanding on the non-instant and experienceless travel areas would be a big help.  Get all of the boats working properly, remove the teleporters, have a more frequent series of automated smaller boats to replace the teleporters which take you from Khal to Ahgram, Upper Defense Bunker, and whatever that place on the western coast is.  Yes, it would take longer, but you would have the option to get off anytime you'd like.

They could also consider adding in actual caravans, and not just the group ones they have in currently.  I often have to go to Southwatch from New Targanor.  Southwatch is surrounded by defensive structures, forts, and other things which obviously require more and more varied supplies then the little grouping of huts at Southwatch can provide.  Add in a Caravan which goes from New Targanor to Southwatch, make it a quest you start at the main gate.  It can move quickly, follow you like other things in quests do (only on the road), and you get a small reward afterwards, as well as having random but level appropriate quest bound (so others can't attack them) bandits which run in from behind trees 0, 1, or 2 times depending on random chance.  Obviously this could work for other locations as well.

These are just my thoughts, and I feel that they're not things which are unrealistic, or would add overly much overhead to the game as it is now.  It would also help to make the world feel more complete, as though each community and location actually are real places, with real people, with needs and wants.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.  I'm sorry if it was a bit long winded. 

-Atif

SYCK,

There are two sets of bonds, but you might not think of them as such.  There are Dissonant bonds, which are things like Leech's Grasp and Touch of Woe, and they are effects you put onto the mob which last 60 seconds and do something neat.  For instance, Leech's Grasp drains endurance from the mob and gives it to you, while Touch of Woe makes the mob take damage every time it attacks anyone, regardless of a hit or not.

There are also Harmonious Bonds, and a few include Kiss of Heaven and Gift of Anguish, which you place on group members (not yourself) and it gives them positive effects.  Kiss of Heaven gives the person a 60 second HoT which does heals for 1/10 it's total heal value every 6 seconds, and Gift of Anguish gives the person a 10% (higher at higher levels) damage bonus (I believe to melee only, but it doesn't say).

You can have only one instance of each bond, and only one bond per person/mob, so you have to think about how you want to use them.

I hope that helps you,

-Atif

Either the higher level versions of the bonds work more effectively, or the bonds have been stealth fixed.  For the last two weeks or so I have been able to use bonds on all members of my group, and none of them drop.  I can also place bonds on enemies, and none of those drop either.

My test group consists of:

Necro (Used to drop when she hurt herself with Transmogrophy)
Dread Knight (Used to drop when she healed herself with an ability)
Blood Made (Used to drop when he hurt himself with... whatever that ability is they have that hurts them)
Enchanter (Used to drop when she used that blast that hurts her)

Also, in case some don't know, you can have multiple bonds up.  I don't know the extact numbers by level, but I know that at level 33 I can have Kiss of Heaven on the Enchanter, Gift of Anguish on the Dread Knight, Touch of the Ox on a mob, and Leech's Grasp on another.  I'm not sure if I could do even more or not.  It's simple that you cannot have more then one bond on a single target, or that bond used on more then one target.

-Atif

I agree that we need a jump in DPS, but I would not underestimate how amazing we become at healing in the mid-late 20's.  Provided you have a tank that is doing their job (otherwise there's not much any healer can do), the use of Blooming Ridge hand, combined with Falling Petal and White Lotus strike, has allowed me to do through almost constant battle in dungeons filled with 4-5 dots right around my level without having to dip into my mana except when some caster overcasts.  At level 33 my tank is being healed for 180 each time she hits a creature, and if it's a 5 dot or two 4 dts then I just need to use Blessed Wind or Kiss of Heaven to keep her up and running at full the entire time.

I even use Blessed Wind to top off my casters (they can't resist hurting themselves with some ability or another), and never have to worry about my own agro getting high enough for my mitigation to matter.  My DPS is a lower then I would like, but every 30 seconds I'm almost assured an 1100 hit with Palm of Discord, and I crit often enough on my own that I get a few non-autocritting ones in from time to time.  Overall I can't complain to much.  I feel my DPS should be on par with that of a defensive tank, but I am comfortable waiting while they work things out, confident that they're working on some ideas, and that things will look up. (Of course, not if they don't mention the fixes that they DO make, like to Harmonous Bonds.  Took me more then a week to hear about that)


-Atif

I've been looking through every spell/ability list I could find for the Disciple, and have not found any reference to an upgrade to Feign death.  Is this something we get automatically?  It's entirely possible the lists are missing it, but if you know the level and name of the ability I would appriciate it.

Thanks,

-Atif

I didn't realize that we got an upgrade to Feign Death.  Thank you greatly for the information, with that knowledge I have no concern at all.

-Atif

I recently leveled my Monk alt to level 14, and I was amazed to find that the Monk Feign Death is only on an 8 second cooldown.  Do we have any idea why, with three feign deaths in the game, the Disciple one has been so severely limited by it's cooldown?  This might not be so much of an issue if not for the bug which causes some creatures to remain on your hate list and standing next to you sometimes.

Perhaps ours is more effective?  I know that it might be usable as a detaunt, and perhaps they didn't want us to be able to spam something so powerful as a complete agro list detaunt, but with Necro's being able to do it (with a casting time) with how much damage they can dish out, I don't see how one could be unbalanced and the other is not.

I would love to hear others thoughts on this.  Thank you.

-Atif

11-20

There are two beacons on the map south east of Khal, towards Ahgram.  The first one has a number of missives that will last you until you are around level 14, as well as many quests in the area should you choose to do some grouping.  After you have reached 14, you would do well to move to the southern beacon and get specifically the missives concerning dustwalker legs and young wyverns.  The wyverns (15-16) are about a 10 second run from the missive board and relatively consistantly drop sell loot worth around 64cp each.  While it may not seem that this could last you to 20, the XP from the missive more then makes up for the drop in XP from the wyverns as you get nearer to 20.

There are also a number of quests there, including a chain for killing 3 and 4 dots if you have a group in the 15-20 range there.

28-??

Southwatch on Thestra is a great place to solo as a Disciple, or any class for that matter.  There is a missive board you can start to get missives from at level 28, and I'm still soloing there now at 33.  For the best XP run solo, I would suggest getitng the missives (my names might be wrong, but people will know them) "Red Sparrow Hunt," "Meat For Southwatch," and the one where you kill black crows. 

Then head up the mountain path behind the mailbox (I believe NW).  You'll likely find a few boar to hunt right outside of town for the Meat (Badgers are on the same spawn table as Boar, so feel free to kill them as you pass), the path is covered in deer, and then when you get to the first bend you can either go further up in order to get more deer meet, or slide off of the hill towards the north-northwest.  You'll find several boar in that area, often a few crows, and there is a red sparrow camp with several solo's around the edge.  Kill more crows and boar on your way back, and then do it all over again.

You'll be able to complete 2 missives each run (meat and sparrows), and will likely be able to do the crows every 2 or 3 runs (they're rare).  When you get to 30(31?) more missives open, and 33 has even more.  The items for turning in 10 completed missives are a bit random, but my friends and I have made enough gold doing these missives and selling the items that we're looking at buying a Caravel soon (only possible if you don't decide to buy things on the market in town).

I also suggest that you hold onto the items you get for the missives, and then take them to Qalia.  The Qalia exchange hasn't had time to even out yet, and the items aren't common over there.  You can get great money for the items, and still be under the average market price for items of that caliber.

I hope this has been helpful to some out there.  Good hunting.

-Atif


*editted to add the 14-20 range and the label for 28-??*