ArmachiA

Honestly, I think most people are in the "Bend, never Break" camp. I've even seen our resident LoreMonger Sounsyy bend a character around lore so it fit, completely. Lore isn't a box, it's doesn't stifle you. Work around it, think outside of it, but don't break it. If there's evidence in lore for something you want to do take it an run with it. Whether or not people think your character is a special snowflake is another matter entirely (And subjective, some people just use "Not lore compliant" as an excuse for their whining), but work with the lore man. There's no reason to work against it.

Oh, I really need to throw my hat into that Wikilore project, I have yet to and that's dumb of me.

I'm gonna have to disagree, as someone who has dug into lore I'm going to say this game has a RIDICULOUS amount of it. It's doesn't have everything - I play an ex-priestess and there is literally nothing to go by with that -- but it's one of the most lore rich MMO's in existence.

I want all the wedding things. I proposed to my Highlander raid member after being rejected. "Hey, ____, marry you Big Hulking DRG <3! I'll pay for the wedding." I think I was still rejected. I can't wait to take advantage of being able to help friends get accustomed to coil without having to deal with lockouts. But then it's still FCOB. People will still need to clear T9 to get there. Or T5 and T9. Did you ever end up setting up that ls? It'll be quite useful the more people clear T9. No more need to stick with just your team every week.

On the roleplaying in a bubble thing: That's fine if you intent to stay in the bubble. I had someone jump my case thought because her super overpowered demi-god wasn't accepted by me because her friends totally let her play it -- therefore everyone had to accept it. Me, I'm not personally comfortable roleplaying with any sort of demon/angel/primal. Voidsents are the exception since they seem so common, but even then only as glorified NPC's. I'm unsure about people having them as their main. Actually, I'm okay with people roleplaying fantastical things as NPCs or Villians in a story -- if it's lore compliant of course -- as long as it's for a specific story and not trying to interact at the Quicksand. Yes, I'd even be okay with someone playing some embodiment of Garuda for a STORY, letting the character go once the story is over. Stories need fantastical elements. I get that. And things are much more rich when someone is behind the wheel of the villian or thing. I really only have one peice of advice (Besides follow lore, because that's honestly my preference) and it was said above. Build a character that happens to be a class, not a class that happens to be a character.

^ THat's me. I've always been nice about it though. I have been called a Lore-Nazi a few times by people who have never interacted with me and have no idea, though.

Was this supposed to be serious? Mine is decidedly non-serious.

If I don't get that wedding dress I may actually kill someone. The Coil news about being able to help friends but not rolling on loot? Best news in a LONG time.

I think Faye pretty much nailed it with the whole people tend to flock to the Dragoon class who want to be super overpowered and AMAZING AT ALL FIGHTING. "I can take 10 people at a time!" types. That doesn't mean all Dragoon players are Mary Sues, it's just Mary Sues are more prone to go there. Take heart, Dragoon players! This will stop once Dark Knight is implemented

Armi is supposed to be a bard. She writes songs and stuff. I'd be interested.

^ Iron Bull says hello

I generally don't say it's the almighty powerful thing it actually is. I use the T5 bow a lot in rp only because I think it looks cool, but IC it's... just a bow.

I really like Solas too, I'm gonna have to make an elf to see his romance tree and his work in the Fade is really interesting. CASSANDRA IS A BAMF I really like most of the characters in this game Except you Vivienne. Except you.

I wouldn't worry about it TOO much. The option to Romance Sera was still there even when . I got around to romancing Cullen and we didn't agree on a number of things. I believe you can convince Sera to see your point of view, which is currently whats going on with me and if you do her quests and talk to her in between missions for approval you'll be all set. Plus there are a number of side quests where she also gains approval (Just help poor people, she likes that) When I got to she was still romanceable to me despite doing something she absolutely didn't really agree with. You'll be okay.

Yup! Cassandra is a really nice motherly type who is the biggest combat badass. (Funnily enough, even if she doesn't go for it if you're a girl, you can still flirt with her. And it's hilarious) God, all the women in this game are really really well done. Fun fact about Cassie: She is in DA2 pretty much throughout the game, as the person questioning Varric while he tells the story of the video game your playing. It's really fun seeing her as a companion this go-round. Sera is afraid of magic. Play off that, you'll be fine. She's so funny and weird. I keep her in my party at all times to listen to her talk to the other two. Her conversations are always hilarious. Also lets all talk about what a god damn shame it is that Varric is not romanceable.

Yup! They made sure everyone got a choice. Sera - Female only, any race Josephine - Anyone Iron Bull - Anyone Cassandra - Male only, Any race Dorien - Male only, any race Cullen - Female Only, Human/Elf only Solas - Female only, Elf only Blackwall - Female only, Any race If you're bisexual, female and an elf, you have the most options, but they gave everyone a few options there. I was going to romance Dorien... but uh... that didn't go as planned *Cries*

I think for girls you get Sera (Who is female only, sorry boys) and Josephine. I really really like both of those characters honestly. Sera is this goofy, kind of off-the-wall elf with a pixy haircut and Josephine is a badass ambassador who takes no shit from anyone. You can't go wrong with EITHER choice. I think Josephine is really beautiful too. (<3 Sera so much omg) Dorian is amazing but Male only (*cry*). Cullen is Alestiar light, but Alestiar is my husbando so it's totaly cool (God I love Alestair). Blackwall is pretty funny but was boring at the start. Solus is interesting but only goes for Elves (racist!), I'm not the biggest fan of Iron Bull yet but his intro was awesome.

NO. NO You get SERA OKAY. SERA IS THE BEST GOD DAMN CHARACTER IN THIS GAME AND SHE ALMOST MADE ME GO LESBIAN BECAUSE SHE IS THAT GOD DAMN AWESOME. I'm probably romancing Cullen. He did the cutest thing ever when I asked if he had taken a vow of Chastity. Blackwall is growing on me though.

^ ^ I have mumble killed myself a few times (Going to press my push-to-talk and... uh forgetting to move) lolol. I set up a newish raid team for my FC and have been going in there with them when they need a sub. I keep yelling at them to communicate more, call out things. It's the main reason why they are wiping. Anyway Kage, if you want help with that LS, I'm down. Like I said above, I'm pretty good at wrangling cats. I've found most of the time people are willing but they need some direction.

Unfortunately for any high tier raiding you need voice chat to listen. You have to, it's just how it is. The only way to clear anything is to make sure someone is calling out the moves and you're calling out what you need to. We have a few people in our groups who refuse to TALK, but they have to go in to listen and then in order to compensate they have a ton of Macros for when they need to call something out. I honestly don't see how anyone does Ramuh EX without voice chat, it's so chaotic in there.

The Night Blades is seeing a change of command and me and Ellion Goto have decided to step down from leadership. Honestly, it became too much work for me to field drama, set up raids, answer questions, do the guild leader thing, make stories, communicate about said stories, make sure our NPC players were moving plots along, making sure I was moving plots along. By the end of my tenure I was on 14-15 hours a day just doing leadership things. So, I decided to step down and focus on what I liked to do: Make and lead stories for the FC and help out the community (Including the RPC - which because of my long hours as a Guild Lead I was completely unable to do). Siben Farnesworth and El Curago have decided to take over the Paperwork side of the guild - while me and Dennthota Ahtahrmwyn have decided to oversee the Creative Side of the guild. We are currently discussing new Officers and doing a vote, so I'll update when that is settled. Night Blades has also recently joined NET, with me as the PR person in that LS. If you which to do a plotline with our guild, I am the person to go do and I'll be sure to go to you for the same. We have many evil NPCs of different varieties (Garleans, Voidsent, Ishgardians, Ascians) that anyone can take advantage of if they need it. We also finally have someone as the overseer of the Rum N Rumble after our old overseer took a break from the game to focus on school. You should be seeing him trying very hard to get the RP community over there. I'll update when everything is more settled!

For those who WANT to raid and just can't/don't want to be the manager: I've put together around 5 coil statics, maybe more. A lot of the time I'm not even in them. I had my static for a year and 4 months (Which recently broke up alas, but luckily I have a ton of raiders in my FC who go into T9 practice) and I'm pretty good at herding cats for reasons I don't know. Please get a hold of me. We need dedicated people who want to go into T9 A LOT and we like to farm Coil 2 now that the majority of us think it's easy (I'm not saying it IS EASY at all, it's just more forgiving as we were all in Coil2 during lock outs) and it would be good to have a pool of people to pull from who WANT to go in there. Show enough dedication and if we clear Coil3 I'll set up all the teams we need. What do I mean by dedication? You need to be a high ilvl - 105 is the cap to even get into T9. Work on getting your accuracy up and Capping your poetics every week. Other than that it's just saying "I'll go" when someone says they are doing a T9 practice run or running into Coil. (We are doing them 4-5 night a weeks, offsetted by Shiva Ex - though right now I'm playing Dragon Age >.>) I do not care what job you are. I have plenty of Tank/Healers in my FC so don't worry about being a dps. Hell, don't worry about being a Tank/Healer. If this is something you're willing to put the time into - give me a PM. EDIT: I SHOULD WARN YOU. We are firm, but fair. We take raiding Semi-seriously, and expect the same from people who come with us. If your rotation is wrong, we'll tell you, if your dps is so low we aren't hitting the DPS checks we'll tell you. We'll answer any questions you might have, but we won't really hesitate to tell you when you screwed up. Not to call you out, but to let you know for the next attempt. We expect you to die a lot. We'll die a lot. If we're going into T6-T8 and you die a lot, don't feel bad. We expect it if your new to it. We will tell you what you did wrong but that's not because we're annoyed. I say Semi-Seriously because we also are in there too have fun. We joke around, we laugh, we do stupid things to keep tension low. We won't really look at DPS if the DPS checks are being hit. So anyone who wants a SUPER SERIOUS raid team should also look elsewhere. Also, you will have to use Mumble. We're somewhat in the middle. If you're okay with that, then continue with your PM

No one should be surprised about nerfs or whatever to Coil. SE has been saying since before the game launched this was always their game plan - nerf the old content so more people can see it, let the raiders move on to new content. THAT BEING SAID. Priorities are different for everyone. Yeah, there's a bit of a "God, remember when this was hard?" about it, I certainly did that for Coil1 (You know how many times I've cleared Twintania? 40. 40 times. This doesn't include the fails. Yes, that's not even an exaggeration, anyone who knows me can tell you I go in there A LOT) but lets be realistic here. If they didn't nerf it, it would be dead content. No one would really do it. The raiders will have moved to to the newest content and the people who don't have the time to learn it would just stay away. Should there be an easy mode instead of a complete nerf? Yeah sure... but honestly if the Easy mode and the Normal Mode gives the same gear 80% of the population would do the easy mode anyway - the path of least resistance after all. If they do decide to do that for later raids in Heavensward, that would be awesome! But lets not pretend the Normals are gonna be THE POPULAR FEATURE. I got into T9 about 2 months ago, so maybe I'm a bit biased since I beat T6-8 before the nerf but eh -- it's better than dead content. I really love that people STILL do Coil1. That's awesome. I'm so used to seeing old raids just get abandoned - becoming nothing more than Ghost Towns. And yeah: The Coil3 storyline is a pretty big deal guys. Like, it finished the storyline completely pretty much. Saying the story doesn't matter in coil is ludicrous

This is the best god damn news I've heard all year.

It's true, ICly my character wouldn't question anyone who says they're from Doma because she knows nothing about Doma. Acting like an expert on a land she has never been to would be horribly ooc. OOCly I can look at the lore, but honestly where you are FROM is completely bendable. You can be from anywhere as any race and make it work. That's not really worth getting upset over and as a self proclaimed lore-monger I'm not gonna fall on my sword debating where someone can or cannot be from.