That was cool ride. Bards especialy Imperials are awesome, but you know it. After condying Liriana the lack of exploration knowlage was obvious to me. So I made explore defense/utility shifter, ranked it to 30 level and...get awesome bored. At the same time Eoria was close to age death and I didn't see anyone else worthy Emperor other than Kostyan. Also thanks to Eoria I got some knowlage of aura/shield talismans and thanks Kunjiko about haste scroll. So I decided to make a shot on War Master and Kornuel was created. Hehe, the plan worked though not as easy as I was thinking Damn Ophanelu and Imperial politics. If other one of those three(Kostyan, Khratryn, Ophanelu) got Emperor I'm pretty sure I'd become War Master like 3 weeks earlier. But it happened like it happened.
Two words about ease of getting Elite position. In general I should agree here. It's not hard. By the moment Kornuel age died there were only two Elites and not because I didn't want to promote people. Just there were no options. Pretty sure any Blade who'd reach 40 rank and showed at least something would get promotion in that situation. But things were just different for Kornuel himself. Kornuel got Elite only at 51 rank and it costed him 200 gold. I believe there was just no position before Ainvar got anathema and Sasha her demotion. Of all my 4 blades now it was the latest when I got Elite. And just a week or two later Kornuel managed to get demotion Though Ophanelu promoted me back just after Emperoring three days later. And it costed about 150 gold more
About overpowerness of bards. Bards in general are not OP. I just don't see how a class that is f**cked to that extend by just ONE prep can be concidered OP. If you are not rager and don't use resist mental vs bard it's only your fault. Those who used it...doubt I ever killed em sollo. Also make yourself a favor fighting a bard - get some saves vs mental. Believe me you don't need to have #### loads of them. For tragic prefered the diference in landing echoes vs one who had about 15 svm maximum was noticable. The only thing that I see unright is Swashbuckler edge. Damn, I like the idea of this edge, I see how it can be in RL. But it gives damn too much. It's just the best edge human bard can get. If it's possible to take it with elf bard I'd take it as well. I'd take it even if it won't improve my dodging/evading. Just being sure that noone can drop your dodging is awesome. More than that. Swashbuckler is damn cheap and seems to have zero requirement. I got it and Erode confidense edge on 25th level having about 2300 Immexp, 1 PK and almost zero exploration. Doubt that my dodge skill was much higher than 80% as well. All in all that's probaly the only thing I'd fix in bards. They have alot of abilities in surviving but much less in sealing kills. They can be damn annoying to fight, but if bard is killing you solo when more likely you just don't know when/refuse to run in time. There are exeptions sure like fiend on cloud rager, but hope you understand that.
Alright, time for personal goodbuys.
Imms, thanks for exp having those two edges from 25 lvl helped alot
Iuna thanks for edge given as reward for Brain/Brawling competition. Hardly the best my perfomance but reward was pleasant

Empire:

Kostyan - I've interacted with you with three diferent Imperial Blades and my oppinion on you have changed quiet alot. For Xanata you were just a drow blade, not deadly at all nothing special. Liriana didn't liked you for almost all the time. Mostly because of stupid episode in Sitran mines Though by the end of Liriana's life she started to respect you for being deadly. Kornuel well he liked and was scared by you at the same time. Awesome feeling. I just couldn't predict if you would like or not my actions especialy after demotion. And thanks for Warmastering not that you had a lot of options though Stay strong and rack up kills.

Khratryn - cool healer. I liked you a lot. Maybe with you as Emperor it could be more interesting. Though Kornuel always saw Kostyan as next Emperor. And doubt I'd ever write the note you asked about before Kostyan's death. So it would never happen. Thanks for showing some places I've never been before.

Klurak - man you were awesome. I think I liked you more than any other I've interacted with. Cool roleplay. I so damn enjoyed it despite the fact that sometimes I could understand about half of it But that's my English and duergar speech. Thanks for showing me abit of Hell, never been there. Sad you gone that early.

Ijerga - dude, for alot of time you were my closest ally. And we made not bad team though you were not as good as Klurak in fighting. But you have good explore knowlage thanks for sharing it and good luck with High Priest.

Ahtieli - solid Dread Lady. Good luck with liching.

Harro - the best of my blades. Sad we had no chance to fight more together. Stupid age death I think you could make next War Master but I can understand the hardness of meeting such odds.

Dashmiri - I liked you. Pitty you gave up and not made it to the con/age death. You were cool for first bard and two imperial bards are very deadly. Hehe. With Liriana I raged like 3 or 4 times

Fortress:

Acvilar - damn hard paladin. Impossible for me to beat you solo. Though elves in general are touch for bards especialy those who use resist mental like crack

Hiajist - almost the same as above. Though you were less active in annoying me with raids I couldn't stop.

Kayela - you were one of two warriors I was afraid of. STSF elf combined with cool equ and hard maledictions...that was hard. Though there were alot I didn't like in you. You were far from brave though avoiding odds that can lead to death isn't that bad. But your whine about gear broke the feeling about you. Maran elf who break his role just because of loosing one dagger(even if it's heartseeker)...well can't say I liked it. The thing is that Emperor ordered to keep your dagger. One more thing is that if not your whine about it I'd destroy it right after Emperor logoff. But you made me to trade it to Spire shifter. After that you full looted me and that don't lead me to respect you more as well.

Cyruil - good enemy. Your virtue is hard. Though you never were as hard as Acvilar or Hiajist.

Ajirkhan - I ended not liking you at all. Not as hard as STSF elf can be, abit too ganging and I HATE loosing my containers and waste the time recovering them. I HATE those who loot preps, thus I hate outlanders but at least I can understand em.

Irilinen - slipery muter. Seems I've never got you. Though you haven't either. Exept on arena

Outlanders - I hate that cabal. I hate it with any piece of my soul. Mostly because of huge ganks and full looting. There is no other cabal which made as much fool loots to Kornuel as outlanders. And there were rather slim chances on revenge with all that camositting/ganging ####.

Throkk - you are one of few whome I realy liked. Greate character, hard fights despite the fact you were fire giant. For me you were way harder than Igbah.

Teldasil - tiger is cool tool for ganging bards. At least those not well expierienced like me. In first two or three ganks with you I paniced and did hell alot of mistaked due to that. Though one on one
tiger suck vs bard.

Seyriliana - in one word - bleh. I don't know maybe your aim to make record in gankage? With your set and bard abilities you could rape Thera or at least that set ensures that if you don't make awfuly stupid mistakes noone can kill you. You've written here that you seem to not be able to kill someone solo and work on efficiency of group fighting e.i. ganking. Well, maybe it would be better to spend your time on working at effisiency of solo killing then? Just curiuos. Though if you enjoy all that gankage - heh, it's your right

Nizi - cool invoker. Though we all know that absed invokers with decent gear are damn touch.

Macha - brave dude. At least at some moment you figured out that neuro spam isn't the best option in many cases. And..try to get barrier. You need it


Battle:
Well. What to say? Source of almost free frags for Imperial bard. Maybe drop them a bone of some resist to fiend pwnage as they can't use resist mental? Something like courage effect on spellbane or something like. The thing is that at some point I just refused to use ANY preps fighting villager one on one. Even fly. And the only thing they could do is compete in surviving...

Fjarn - well, fiended cloud rager=dead cloud rager almost always. You had a tool to prevent me from it to some extend, but sometimes it didn't work. But even without fiend I was outdamaging you with apocalyptic song.

Inger - almost the same as above, exept without fiend you were outdamaging me, but as was said I didn't use damreductions.

Droghund - man when you were middle 30th and looted my corpse under Huntress I sweared to full loot you once you reach my range. Heh, that didn't happened mostly cause i calmed down by moment and enjoyed our fights. i wasn't trying to interact with you so thats maybe one more reason I still have rather good feeling for your character

Xubertok - the most slipery villager I fought with. Damn I've never killed you solo And only once was close to it when catch you near Sitran. But medium fiend/Rukhtanshi saved you. Heh, and you striped death reed harp from and I couldn't get it almost to end of Kornuel's life. Though I've found decent replacement

Jalenkan - I liked our talks nad fights, though despite STSF you wasn't very hard.

Scions: not much to say. You were rarely on in my times it seems.

Igbah - heh, sad you never bothered to give me good fight.

Fatfrumos - douche.

Soha - rather brave, but you needed more damreduct to compete.

Dkarfvoor - well, I knew you were scion partialy cause Liriana witnessed that partialy cause you saved Deiha's life. And for Kornuel good scion was dead scion. I wasn't up for any trading/gifts from scions. Though your information was useful

Nexus:
Grecken - well the only one worth mention for me. With others I rarely fought and almost never talked. Well, from times of Liriana you figured out how to fight bards and when to run. As there is no way for me alone to prevent you from fleeing, fiend doesn't kill you, your spores/thornhearths annoys...well at some point I just stoped bothering to try to kill you.


Well, I'm sure I'm forgetting some of you. Heh, not easy to remember all those I've met in 500 hours.

PS If someone can pick my PBF that would be cool.