Hello and welcome back.

As a heads up, Ranger Magic is in the process of being overhauled. In fact, it went through its first QC just last Friday and only needs minor adjustments. One of the bigger changes is going to be Memory of Nature (allows you to "carry nature" with you into the city and reduce damage to ranger bonus) becoming quite a bit more useful, but slightly harder to cast.

Ranger SIGN was just updated and given many more options.

Companions will be seeing a few updates in the coming months. Primarily, no more run-aways, faster aging, some more colors, a few other things. These are all preliminary changes to make the current system less of a hassle.

A few other things are in flux but planned as well. I'll give more details when the plan is more solid.

As for Guild Lore, we've got something interesting that a few staff have been mulling over, but it could mean a pretty interesting side to the Guild and its magic happening.

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NaOH+HI

Awesome news on all of that. Any chance of new companions? Or companions that can aid in combat?

Yeah, I played from way back in 99.. That aside I'll second the yes please :)
I've gone ahead and made up a brand new young ranger named Arandol. Looking forward to getting back into the game. Any advise anyone could give would be great. I've picked up Compost and Athleticism for my first two spells for train, plan on doing Essence of Yew next for Warding. Which TM and Debilitation spell would everyone suggest? I've decided on mainly light armor, with a couple extra pieces thrown in to train Brig and Chain. 2HE, Bow, Brawling, Small blunt, Light thrown and Staff as weapons.

Grab EC for a good TM spell and BB for an early debilitation spell.

EY isn't going do be a lot of use other than for training so I suggest you grab a MaF scroll from the Crossing magic shop and invoke it. Use your spell slots on Instict, SotT, StW, and CotC.

MaF + Inst + SotT will be all the defense you will ever need.

Devolve needs to wear off I'm fairly certain, also you can't cast it without training. BB is usable out of the gate and is spammable. I think the arcana requirement for scrolls is around 50-60ish? Look on e-pedia under the arcana skill.

Lay Ward is less than 20 Arcana (new magical devices). I'm not sure if scholarship plays into it, and you can find a moon mage to buff you it you have problems. MAF is a lot more. I want to say 50-80, but I can't recall off-hand.

Quick update in case anyone cares. Was able to read the Lay Ward scroll at between 5 and 8 Arcana and 7 scholarship.

Thank you so much for the welcome and the offer Kivian. As of right now I have a cane I picked up from the Bacon Man Birthday fest. I seem to do well with it and I (think) it has decent stats, 40 stones and does very heavy impact. As far as the bow, I'm currently using an old bow from when I played before (bloodwood short bow) I'm not sure if that's good anymore or not, truth be told. I had thought about trying to find either a battle bow, or skirmisher's bow on a traders table but haven't had much luck yet. And truth be told I'm not sure how good those are either.

Thanks again to everyone for all the help,
~Arandol

Thanks for the info. I've gone ahead and bought a skirmisher's bow from Nasrid. Loving it. Also picked up a forged balaclava and mail gloves. Currently using a set of old superb garg leathers. Are these still good? Or should I look into investing into a different set of leathers/cloth?

Thanks guys, you're all awesome.
~Arandol

I have a set of coarse amber-hide armor (leathers, gloves, and cowl-all with the same appraisal below) for you, if you want it.

You feel certain that some coarse amber-scale leathers appear to impose high maneuvering hindrance and fair stealth hindrance, offering:
high protection and good damage absorption for puncture attacks.
very high protection and good damage absorption for slice attacks.
very good protection and good damage absorption for impact attacks.
fair protection and low damage absorption for fire attacks.
fair protection and low damage absorption for cold attacks.
moderate protection and somewhat fair damage absorption for electrical attacks.

If you were only wearing some coarse amber-scale leathers you could expect your maneuvering to be barely hindered and your stealth to be minimally hindered.

You are certain that the coarse leathers are very strong against damage, and are practically in mint condition.

The coarse leathers are moderately soft.
You are certain that the coarse leathers weighs about 168 stones.
You are certain that the coarse leathers are worth exactly 72787 Kronars.

and for comparison to quest leathers. The quest coarse leather version would swap the slice/impact/puncture protection...

You feel certain that some rugged leathers with gold stitching appear to impose high maneuvering hindrance and fair stealth hindrance, offering:
great protection and very good damage absorption for puncture attacks.
high protection and very good damage absorption for slice attacks.
very high protection and very good damage absorption for impact attacks.
good protection and fair damage absorption for fire attacks.
good protection and fair damage absorption for cold attacks.
moderate protection and somewhat fair damage absorption for electrical attacks.

If you were only wearing some rugged leathers with gold stitching you could expect your maneuvering to be barely hindered and your stealth to be minimally hindered.

You are certain that the rugged leathers are extremely resistant to damage, and are in good condition.

The rugged leathers are moderately soft.
You are certain that the rugged leathers weighs about 220 stones.
You are certain that the rugged leathers are worth exactly 150000 Kronars.

I'm going to test out my newly acquired segmented bone hauberk. I hope bone armor enhancements will be finished "soon".

You feel certain that a segmented sluagh-bone hauberk appears to impose high maneuvering hindrance and fair stealth hindrance, offering:
high protection and fair damage absorption for puncture attacks.
high protection and fair damage absorption for slice attacks.
high protection and fair damage absorption for impact attacks.
low protection and poor damage absorption for fire attacks.
low protection and poor damage absorption for cold attacks.
low protection and poor damage absorption for electrical attacks.

If you were only wearing a segmented sluagh-bone hauberk you could expect your maneuvering to be barely hindered and your stealth to be minimally hindered.

You are certain that the segmented hauberk is particularly weak against damage, and is in pristine condition.

You are certain that the segmented hauberk weighs about 168 stones.
You are certain that the segmented hauberk is worth exactly 16000 Kronars.

-Kivian

Welcome back. Lots of changes. You will love them.