I always expected to con die as this char. An imm actually mentioned to me that I seemed to be logging in for very short periods of time lately and it looked suspicious, which kind of put things in perspective. I generally log out when frustrated to avoid spur of the moment rage deleting, and after this I realised I wasn't actually enjoying the build anymore.

I had a few things I felt I needed to do to learn more about the game once Viyen was done. Play a mage again, play an underdog cabal, play a Scarab, play a low dex build, and get better at the aspects of team pk warrior doesn't really have to worry about (summoning and such). giant AP ticked all those boxes, though I suspect in hindsight this was a bit(lot*) above my current capabilities. So a quick retrospective from a relatively low experienced POV:

The thing I expected to be hardest was actually easiest. I read a lot about how Scarab was really elitest and figured it'd be very hard to join, but wasn't the case at all. Gemurra was awesome and even though I was very weak in the interview gave me a shot. Very much enjoyed this cabal, will definitely do again. 100% the only reason the character lasted this long - awesome people, great thematics. Sad I never got the last two powers, but maybe next time.

Low dex build was a real culture shock. I found soloing much much harder and this cost me a lot of PVE deaths early on, since things I expected to be able to solo no problem turned out to be nonviable. This was a bit of a downward spiral, since I then had to burn trains which cost me pracs, etc. My weapon choice was likely a factor here, since I went with axes which I believe hurts my parry a fair bit compared to swords. This definitely made it apparent to me how lacking my PVE skills are, so that'll be something to work on going forward.

Mage was where my problems started. This was less playing the class itself, and more wands. One thing that got very frustrating was that wands mostly aren't illusionary because of being in containers and such a lot of the time, so it was hard to figure out where wands would normally be. I was fairly dependent on sleeks, which was a major issue because (possibly just because I am bad at AP), soloing for a lot of the sleek options was a nightmare or simply not going to happen in some cases. Barrier was basically out of the question. I could usually get shield (there was just one location that I got that I needed help with), but aura was generally off the table unless I was willing to roll the dice on a death. I did this a few times initially (its part of why I was stuck at level 37 for so long), but it wasn't really worth it. I think this would be much less infuriating as a necro/shifter/conjurer. Admittedly scarab probably made this tough too, since a much smaller pool of people its acceptable to ask to come help. This was definitely the chief frustration I had when playing this character.

AP class was definitely tough. This was much harder for me to pick up than elf warrior personally, though elf warrior was more forgiving in terms of build mistakes because of the practice situation. I think a big part of that was inexperience with low int/wis characters, since I made a lot of bad decisions skill wise early on. I also messed up my edges picking something I thought would have more impact than it did, though I'm not sure how major that is for AP.

It became pretty apparent to me fairly early on that my gear knowledge is fairly insufficient for the needs of ap, particularly because most of the good items I knew the locations of were for good/elf chars (and, of course, I was horribly spoiled by request). I think when I play this again I will definitely have to know more gear/wand locations. All that said, I absolutely love the AP concept and have no doubt I will play this again at some point. Skill grinding was also agonising as giant, which made me break my resolution to practice skills early on this go around. Oops.

So, onto the people. This character was fun because I got to interact with a lot of people I didn't really speak with on my last one. In no particular order, and just the people that really had a major impact:

Orgoleth: my best certainly not friend on this character. You helped me out a ton with my wands and were just a great presence in the cabal. Very fun to run around and hunt enemies with. I'm not sure if you're going for lich/mummy, but good luck if you are!

Gemmurra: I enjoyed the interview a lot, even with my numerous wrong answers. You were very patient and clearly go out of your way to keep things fun. Was sad to see you delete.

Undaraxyl: very awesome character. Super intimidating even when on your side. When you were around and I saw people hit the gargoyle I just knew they were going to have a tough time of things.

Zwexa: fun character. You got me out of a real bind by getting me my weapon back at one point and were very helpful in general.

Gillador: we didn't get to interact much since I was already burning out by the point you came around, but I really liked what I saw.

Lidi: I enjoyed our interactions. You also got me one of the five( I think?) aura sleeks I had during the character's lifetime, which was an instant valued ally spot.

Gilversplitz: we never did get to finish our conversation, but I had fun with that a lot. Also thanks for the free wands - those got me out of a real bind when I was stuck on a couple of really rough sleak locations.

Draung: your response to my turning down of the oath was exactly how I imagined a dreadlord reacting. Big thumbs up from me, was really cool. It also shaped a lot of how I dealt with Empire going forward.

Kadavarn: honourable mention because although we didn't really interact, you're the first person to land the assassinate on me on any character. I had a wait, what moment.

Tamhas: my god, you were my absolute nemesis for the longest time. Karneth might have been sure he was going to take your soul at some point, but my chief concern was having an exit strategy (preferably several).

Village: as before, top notch. Sorry I couldn't really offer a better fight for those that I did end up rumbling with. Fighting berserkers without aura or barrier was painful. Basically all villagers were also really classy when it came to looting - I never expected anyone to leave the unholy weapon on a kill but pretty much every villager did.

Empire: great interactions here too. For whoever played Vizane, you had me down to ten health that time things went your way. I'm sad we didn't get to fight more later on, I suspect with legacies and your second spec things would've gone very differently.

Fortress: I didn't actually interact with a ton of Fortress this go around somehow, but the ones I did with were always fun.

All in all, I think this character was considerably less successful than my last one, but an experience I think was worthwhile. It definitely let me apply some of the things people mentioned in Viyen's death thread: my gold issues were much reduced this time around for instance. I also learned some more areas (typically by dying horribly when the discuss task decided to inflict suffering on me), but that was good too. See you all next time, hopefully as something I'm not quite so inept at (and as something that never has to step foot into the underdark).