I'm writing this because I'm frustrated. I speak for a lot of people
when I say this- I'm tired of spending a lot of time learning how to
fight just to have my work spit upon when a Guild is upgraded to the
point of overpowerdness. For all of you who haven't figured it out yet,
I'll tell you how Devotion was changed. Paladins and Priests now do not
need a shrine to use their rites. Their rites are portable and they can
carry them around with them wherever they want. What does this mean for
their enemies? It means Priests could put up a rite of demons and have
your mana drained away so they can absolve you and kill you instantly.
This means Paladins can now walk around with a rite of piety (which is
like gravehands) and a rite of demons, no matter if they are within
a shrines influence or not. Paladins now have the following abilities
in a fight no matter where they are- they can doubleslash you for damage
and two afflictions. Meanwhile, their falcon is throwing you off balance
and doing 400 damage to you ever couple of seconds. Then their rite
of demons does 400 damage to you ever 3 seconds, and does 300-400 mana
damage every 3-5 seconds. Then their rite of piety keeps you from running
away 3/5ths of the time, and throws you off balance for one second every
chance you fail at leaving. In essence, Priests and Paladins are now
very much like Magi, except with all the powers they have had before. A
Priest of Paladin in defense of this might say that some of their skills
were taken away to compensate for the increase in Devotion. This is true,
but the increase in Devotion far outweighs any other skills that were
taken away. A rite of inspiration now gives the person with Devotion
a +2 to strength. In essence, this makes up for the 25% downgrade in
a Paladins doubleslash, and it's like giving away a two thousand credit
artifact for free. I have fought Tarlin since the Devotional changes, and
the only time I was able to beat him is when he was running around not
staying in one room with his rites. I currently have one of the highest
hitpoint regeneration rates in Achaea. I have kaido regeneration, boosted
regeneration, trollskin armour, boar tattoo, transmute, and triggered
health and moss. Even with all of these regeneration techniques, I
was not able to stay above 0 hitpoints when I was being effected by Tarlins
rites. Shielding was not even an option because rites go straight through
a shield, and there is NO defense against them. You can't destroy rites,
and the only ability to somewhat defend against them is a tarot ability
that only Occultists have. Priests and Paladins also do not need crystals
or any materials to start their rites, just devotion points which are
automatically regenerated. Before devotion was changed, any semi-experienced
Priest was able to kill monks with relative ease. Angel spiritwrack combined
with angel aura and absolve made for an extremely deadly combination against
monks and other Guilds. Now that devotion has been greatly improved, Priests
now have the ability to drain your hitpoints and mana much quicker than
before, just so they can kill you instantly with absolve when you get below
half hitpoints. I believe there needs to be a change. Currently, there are
no defenses against rites. You can't destroy them, and since they are portable,
anybody who is fast enough to set them up after they move, will have an
extreme advantage in every situation. Between doubleslash, falcons, and all
their rites, Paladins are now super powerful. I expect many replies
to this post, but take into account that I will not listen to people who
have devotion (as they are obviously going to be very biased on this topic),
and I will not listen to people who have not experienced the effects of
these "walking shrines" first hand. Only after you have experienced the
extreme power in the devotion changes will you no doubt agree with me that
something needs to be done, that something needs to be changed. Slow down
rites, or slow down falcons, or limit rites to one per room, but please do
something to decrease the enormous power that Paladins and Priests now
wield within Achaea. This change is a major blow to all defilers out there, as
defiling is now pointless. There is no point in defiling a shrine since
anybody with devotion can now use their rites anywhere and everywhere. Until
shrines are changed to an Order based system, defiling is just pointless.
Even after an Order based shrine system goes in, a Paladin and Priest with
the ability to walk around with these extremely powerful rites is just
too much to handle when there are no defenses against rites and since
rites go straight through shields. Remember, before you post in reply of
this message, experience first hand what I am talking about.

Penned by my hand on the 13th of Sarapin, in the year 260 AF.