I'm not sure what your intent here is - Empaths aren't really suffering for combat prowess, and being good at combat doesn't really hinder an Empaths ability to heal as well. You don't have to shock yourself to be a combat empath.

Personally, I'd like to see GS abandoned in favor of something more akin to SLS (no engagement), but that's not going to happen. In line with having a fae pet I don't think you're ever going to get Empaths summoning ADDITIONAL fae pets. Consider that YOU are the ranged caster - cast spells. If you want to play a pet class that summons multiple entities, go with a Necro.

I would like to see Empathy expanded with more than just Manipulate.

> It's almost all geared towards combat, and we can't always have flexing undead to fight

Right, but, again, Empaths don't need to train weapons to fight, and don't even need Absolution to train weapons.

I'm not sure what you mean by the rest of what you've brought up. A lot of the game is combat based, and that means focusing on combat related things. If you don't like that, you picked a class that gives you the option to avoid it, almost entirely truthfully.

>Maybe I'm alone here, and maybe I should just give up and finish my transition into a new class, but I really do like empaths on paper. I just wish they fit better in the world of modern DR.

I think there's room for improvement, but I honestly don't understand the ire you seem to be directing at Empaths here.

>Empaths are probably never going to be a superb damage dealing class, however. Right now Empaths excel at surviving nearly unsurvivable situations, and helping others to do so. If I (for lack of a better term) increase Empaths' DPS, it will be at the expense of defensive capabilities. That's not really a road I want to go down, but I'm open to opposing points of view.

That said, respectfully, Empaths hunting the undead or constructs can put out DPS that's pretty solid. Instead of focusing on Empath DPS, which I think is more than fine, I think it'd be neat if Empaths had more to do in combat, or more combat related things tied to Empathy. As it is, weaving/circling, paralyze/lethargy/nb, manipulate, and watching the GS kill stuff is a little shallow feeling.

@Melette,

Thanks for your comments. This is very helpful in understanding the probability of this. If empaths are what they are then fine. I'll continue pushing my alts until they become my mains. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is.

What I'm reading from this is that you and I play the game in two different ways. That's fine. The fact that we can both do that is great about this game, but it shouldn't be a surprise that we have two different opinions on what would be better for the game. It doesn't seem to matter though. The GMs agree with your perspective, so it is what it is. The only thing left to do is to alter my game play to accommodate that fact.

>A lot of people seem openly hostile towards empaths, presumably because they have their own pet path or friend to heal them. I've had people go all caps on me for taking their twitching. Twitching.

This is a metagaming issue, and is pretty unrelated to Empaths as a whole, I'd say. People who are going to scream at you because you healed them before their alt could get to them are idiots, and you should just move on and ignore them. I would not say they represent the norm by any stretch of the mind - I 'wound steal' all the time when I pass through gathering spots and have only had people tell me to just heal them whenever I happen through instead of asking twice and whispering an apology. Out of curiosity, do you principally reside in the Crossing?

>Treasure systems. Something other than raw coins. I would love for tasks to scale and give you rewards as if you killed a creature of the appropriate level. I'd like work orders to sometimes give you random (even if low quality) mats or gems or boxes or scrolls. Outdoorsmanship is good with the mining and lumberjacking systems, but I'd like more systems like that. I'd like collectables (yes, I do cards) to be rewarded for things other than murderball.

Ok, but, 'gems' are just 'things that are worth coins until you give them to a gemshop'. Skins too, unless you want to convert them to leather for Outfitting, which for all but maybe 3 critters is simply a waste of time. Scrolls and Treasure maps are the only 'treasure' really. I've found one treasure map the entire time I've played across all characters, and ended up finding a neat headgem that I sold for a ton of coin. I stockpile scrolls, and buy and sell them as needed. Cards too, I suppose, but again, that's not something that Empaths have a hard time accumulating.

As for your notion of 'tasks to scale', you're describing a quest system, which would be cool, but is entirely unrelated to issues with Empaths, and something Empaths could easily jump into. I too think it would be neat if an NPC or something was like 'Yo, go kill 5 moose and bring me their antlers', and started up with a Bounty Point System akin to Gemstone, but I also don't really think it's necessary or, again, something Empaths aren't 100% capable of rocking face at.

Again, I feel like I need to remind you that Empaths are more than capable of killing things and killing them good. There is room for improvement, but what you are asking for regarding a more involved treasure or quest system is 100% unrelated to Empaths specifically.

<<Empaths are probably never going to be a superb damage dealing class, however. Right now Empaths excel at surviving nearly unsurvivable situations, and helping others to do so. If I (for lack of a better term) increase Empaths' DPS, it will be at the expense of defensive capabilities. That's not really a road I want to go down, but I'm open to opposing points of view.>>

For whatever it's worth, I for one agree with you. I really like the "extremely weak offense in exchange for ultra survivability for self and others" thing, and regard it as pretty much the cornerstone of the guild's identity. I just wish there were more opportunities to engage in the "helping others to do so" part of that.

Thanks,
-Life Weaver Karthor

>>-Engagement spell (i.e. forcibly moves a target from beyond melee range with the GS and places it engaged at melee range with the GS)

The GS can actually be commanded to taunt players. It's a charm vs. will contest. It doesn't move them directly to melee, but it moves them to pole and sets them to be advancing on the GS. If they're sitting or standing it will make them stand up, and if they're hiding/invis it will bring them out of hiding/invis (assuming the Empath can see them).

Melete

---

Nature, it seems, is the popular name
for milliards and milliards and milliards
of particles playing their infinite game
of billiards and billiards and billiards.