Drow

Introduction

Dark-elves, or Drow, are the race of elves that were banished from the surface world and now live in a vast cave network known as The Underdark. They have dark skin and pale hair, and a majority of of Drow are evil, as they harbor great resentment toward their surface-dwelling cousins. Although smaller and more frail than humans, Drow have a great affinity for using and resisting magic. They worship the Queen of Spiders, Lloth, as their goddess, and she has rewarded them with several spider-like abilities. Living in a matriachal society, it is very rare to see males come to power of any kind. Drow society is divided into three classes, or castes. Warriors, Mages, and Clerics (sometimes called Priests).

Powers

Upon choosing Drow as your class, the first (and absolutely most important) thing you should do is pick which caste you wish to play as. This is done by typing "grant self <warrior/mage/cleric>".

Drow powers are obtained by killing mobs for class points and then using the "grant" command ( grant <target> <power> )

A vast majority of powers are either automatic, or the "turn on and forget" type (ToaF)

• Drowsight - Heightened senses. Allows you to see invisible and hidden mobs/players, and in dark rooms. Does NOT allow you to see into a room another drow (or spider droid) has darkened. (ToaF)
• Drowshield - Shields your aura from others (ToaF)
• Levitation - Flying, no need to gem for it. (automatic)
• Darkness - Your hiding ability. Turns the room you're in dark. The Globe of Darkness moves with you. Others can remove it with faerie fog.
• Drowpoison - "Favour to grant poison & immunity (automatic)"
• Drowfire - Improved faerie fire. Warriors have the weakest version, mages have the strongest.
• Garotte - Melee middy, REQUIRES A WHIP to use.
• Dgarotte - Dark Garotte, opening attack. Requires darkness to be active, out of combat and a whip.
• Spiderarms - More arms to increase parry/attack speed. Also provides a third/fourth weapon slot while in Spiderform. (automatic)
• Drowhate - Increases damcap. Appears to be based on status, more status gives a higher increase. Must deactivate and reactivate it to get the updated boost after gaining status.
• Spiderform - Mutate into a giant mutant spider. Unfortunately, you don't shoot webs out of your butt. (ToaF)
• Web - Point your finger at the victim and shoot them with a web. Absolutely wonderful for classes that leave the room to attack.
• Confuse - Confuses your opponent, causing them to flee. Rarely useful.
• Glamour - Ability to change the short/long descriptions of items, as well as the name. (Origination - Drow make beautiful Adamantite weapons and armor, but these items would lose their powers and eventually decay in the sunlight.)
• Earthshatter - Causes an earthquake that damages everything in the room. Deals one hit to each target, damage seems to count as melee and is modified by hr/dr and not psyche.
• Toughskin - Reduces damage taken. (automatic)
• Speed - Increases attack speed (hit roll). (automatic)
• Darktendrils - Summons tendrils of darkness to strike your foes automatically. Has a very high hit chance. (ToaF)
• Fightdance - "Use your opponent's servants against them." (ToaF)

Castes

There are three castes in the Drow society, Warriors, Mages, and Clerics. The Clerics are generally considered to be the top caste, since they commune with Lloth more than the other two castes. There is some debate about the rankings of Warriors and Mages, although Warriors are generally considered to be the lowest ranking caste.

Warriors

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Mages

Drow mages are a fairly balanced class, damage split roughly even between melee and middies, with Chaosblast doing slightly more damage than a melee round. Because they are practitioners of offensive magic, they have the strongest version of Drowfire of the three castes, but a weaker Garotte and Darkgarotte than Warriors. The also have a much weaker class heal than Clerics do, in fact its so weak that it is rarely, if ever, useful and should be considered a waste of a command. Drow mages benefit from psyche and damroll.

Once you have the Spiderarms and Spiderform powers, you should always keep spiderform active, since it provides the two extra arms and hands for weapons. Drow can wear six weapons, but only deal damage with four of the weapons, the other two being sheathed and used for the extra stats this is no longer true. As a mage, you don't want to use a two-handed weapon.

Combat

Since mages have few defensive abilities that are worth using, you want to get the opening hit every time its possible. Darkness, then dgarotte your victim to provide best opening damage (this can be what determines if you win or lose). Once combat has been initiated, immediately apply drowfire, then you can start using chaosblast. Its recommended not to spam chaosblast, that way drowfire can be reapplied if the victim removes it (via dispel magic), or any other action necessary can be taken. Generally, Mages are strong against melee heavy classes (samurai, drow warriors, etc), and evenly matched or weak against middy heavy classes, depending on the class.

Clerics

Stress AC more than any other stat on your gear.  This enables you to get extra mileage out of your heals, which are not effected by psyche.