Shattered Kingdoms

Alright, I'm an old player come back to play until I get bored or fed up. Its been a while, I think last time I played was when I lived up in the North and I helped Benjamin and posse gang rape th3 lighties.

So, I'm kicking around a few ideas. First off Scouts or Mercs specced with bow, which is better, and what is a good race for either class, and what can I expect as far as bow attacks per round with that race? With the fastest bow and arrow combo of course. Or should I opt for a giant and just have more dpr? Also, when and if I were to create a Giant Barb would it be useful to dump as much into MR or HP or equal amounts? I have looked around the forums for some of these answers but I'm kind of stuck. So, help an old player create a master race to enslave the lighties and I'll see you in Pyrathia.

Also, wtf is up with suppression, how do I use it, why is it here, and is it as big of a waste as it looks?

PS: I like Fighters, I'm not a caster so don't advise me to make a Necro even though it would be nice to rape Nerina everyday... buwahahahaha!

I'm not really an expert on any of this, but suppression is essentially for barbarians who do a MR build. It's pretty hard to land a helpful spell on them (healing, sanc, etc) when they have natural resistance to magic, which is a drawback to the plus of having it be pretty hard to land an offensive spell. It's actually very helpful for any priest or caster trying to help said barb. Sure trumps "detect poison" in the useful department.

With the fastest bow, Archery Bow, and the /only/ arrows anyone ever uses, Battle Arrows. The most hits you'll ever get is 5. That's as a GM scout with haste, and as a GM merc spec'd in it with Haste. They both get 4 hits without haste. I'd say scout is there better choice, because you get a pet, and herbs. But I'm biased, I like the scout class a lot.

Just to clarify, scouts can have both a tame and a store-bought pet now. Likely a change since last you played.

So, yeah. Scouts are even better, then.

Not to mention herbs, which are king.

If you're going to use a bow, I agree that scout > mercenary. However, for crossbows, I think that mercenary > scout. During the bonanza a few weeks back, I plvled a mercenary that specialized in siege crossbow (for the hell of it) and it hits much, much harder than any bow/arrow combination.

I was able to fire three siege bolts a round at mentor/master level without haste. At GM with haste, you might get four bolts per round. In the end, I think it depends on what you plan to do with the character. If you're aiming to join a tribunal, I'd go with a mercenary because you'll get a free pet, which will let you play as a sniper in the third row. Plus, you'll have retreat to help you stay at range. You'll have access to every buff a scout can get from herbs via tribunal NPCs.

If you're planning to join a cabal, I'd probably go with scout. My two cents - take it for what you will.