Wed May 21 10:16:21 2008

At 5 o'clock PM, Day of the Moon, 21st of the Month of the Frost Giant
on the Theran calendar Kornuel perished, never to return.

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.

I tried for you alone several times. We both know how that ended. You teleporting upon fiend immediately. Usually because I snuck up to you unprepared. In any situation, you were not prepared to fight me thus left.

The chance I had of killing you alone were not great at all. So why bother practicing and wasiting scrolls and time on it? I only have so many hours of the day. I'd rather not spend them proving I can make you flee. I know I can. And I know you can cause me to flee given certain situations. I do not call you a coward from fleeing from me 1 v 1 when you were unprepared. But to call me a coward for using the appropriate tools to kill you is rather lame. And I expect you to use what tools you need as well to nail some kills. And there is no doubt you did try.


Seyriannia is not a bard designed role wise to rape thera single handidly. While thats what you or others want. There is a diversity of roles in the game. Seyriannia is a nurturer and great friend to her allies. To her enemies she is a stern hand. You can limit your perspective however you wish. You can view the game in the perspective you wish. But thats not going to change the role of others and how they should perform to your standard.


I dont want to sound mean. I liked kornuel and the time spent calculating how to take you down. I rolled up when Empire was rather strong. 2 and a possible THIRD imperial bard was rolling up the ranks. You have to credit yourself with something there . So I made the elf bard. Unfortunately the tables turn fast. Thats the way of things.

Well, first I haven't called you coward. I called you gank machine Second I don't blame you for trying to gank Kornuel. If I wasn't doing damn stupid mistakes there were noone who could kill him solo, preped or not. And not that many ganks which could kill him especialy with abit of prepping from myside. My coment on your gankage was mostly cause you tried to gank everyone even those who don't stand a chance vs bard. Though as I said if you like to be that kind of friend to your allies and gank,gank,gank with em it's your right.

Seems like with the right scrolls and staves, one bard would have a pretty good chance of killing another bard solo if he got the other guy slept and had several hours to sing/spell him up. Just my $0.02.

I dont think i ever passed the deafen phase on kornuel.

He was never on alone? Ever? Admittedly it's not a very common thing to have the full sleep duration to mess with someone. But surely there was some time when your times overlapped and Kornuel didn't have cabal backup.

To nail kornuel by myself I would need likely to hurt him a little before sleeping him. Followed with curse/blind/deafen/scourge/poison as a base. Followed with a potent fiend. That may have done it. But the chances of me landing all of those scrolls much less having them all available at the time I have him slept are very small.

It was hard to just kill him with two people. Another tripper and I. The reason being? Because lowering his dex does a little but hardly anything because his evade is based of charisman. Giving him a few openings to run if he doesnt spam commands.

I'm thinking dispel/curse/blind/slow/plague and maybe weaken would do the trick if you got a decent fiend. Though, maybe I'm underestimating Kornuel.

I'm not sure what weapon he wielded, but figure plague + weaken + your bard song is going to put him at around -20 even if it's a crappy weaken. If that makes him drop weapon, and he's slowed, and blind so he can't wield a healing staff or eat pills...could be rough.

I just know that if I were in Kornuel's shoes and you got me slept, and had all the time in the world to sing/recite/brandish at me, then I would be somewhat worried.

Dispel was easy. Curse and blind as a good/chaotic non-buying bard is difficut(for me at least). So its all about actually landing what you have available which is hard.

So yes, theoretically I could do it. I just never managed to succeed. And i'm remembered for the times I did succeed in killing. And that was when they died. And it wasnt to me solo. Perspective.

I just think your char is the king of Bleh.

Please chime in when my thread appears. Until then focus your thoughts towards kornuel. This is his thread, afterall.

I saw a small difference, but you still killed both of my characters at hero with fiend more than once when I had resist mental up. You also forget to mention that you can easily dispel that prep and I think your main argument as to why bards aren't overpowered is nixed. Just my diminutive opinion though (I don't know why I bother anymore since I know it won't get changed, and I don't even care). I remember you tearing through Laernoch (storm pally) and still consistently landing sleep on him with resist mental up. Furthermore resist mental is one of the more expensive preps to keep up (and the preps ticker is pretty small..like 7 hours i think?) and well...you're pretty much impossible to kill regardless of your gear unless you make a glaring error in the fight whereas most of your opponents can choose all the right tactics and still have near no chance.

Anyway, you definitely stuck it out with Kornuel so congratz on that.

Man, I miss the days where you ran up against something tough for your character and took it as a challenge instead of throwing your hands up and declaring the game to be broken.

It made you a better player, and I'd bet you were having more fun back then.

Or if all else fails, gang the hell out of him.

You're absolutely right Nep, and well... I don't have a good response. Simply put I just haven't ''caught up'' to the recent changes and whether that is my fault or the mud's fault I personally think is somewhat irrelevant (though I have tried a bunch of different hard-up classes - all sorts of non dex-int heavy classes- which have all failed equally miserably). It seems like some people are having all sorts of fun with the dex changes but my very scarce OOC connections (a couple unbiased players as well as some former IMMS and now my former roommate who CFs who also seems equally bitter to the new CF), we all seem disenchanted with the state of things which leads to long leaves of absenses like my current one from CF. I am not a cheater and I don't want to pwn CF or my fellow CFers. I just enjoy having a fighting chance against most classes (barring emperors and liches and sick a-ps) and right now when I roll up a char all I can think of is how I'm going to get owned by evade and dodge and all high int-dex chars played by people that used to be competitive with me -i'm talking to you Kostyan- so that is my very poor $0.02.

Enjoy my friends and I hope your CF'ing is half as enjoyable as mine was a few years ago when it was an absolute blast for me (as it surely is for other ppl now). Nothing compares to the rush of partaking in a free-for-all where everyone has a chance but the gutsiest has the advantage or can learn something they previously didn't know about the game.

Take care,
Dylan.

But Kostyan is Emperor.

nt

Is that they are on the upper echelon of power in classes. I saw a lot of Grysh's dwarf's log, and he would get pwned like a bastard child of a homeless retard every single time. Dispel with the dove figurine usually worked since resist mental is so low level. One sleep, and you're ####ed, since sleep lasts 12 ticks at hero range.

There are some classes out there where you need to gang. Lich, 30+ charge APs. I think Bard is up there, and given the kickassness of distort, and that they are the most qualified class to fight gangs...

etc.

I hate bards

That Grysh, much like me, has fun playing certain types of characters.

Those characters are much LESS in vogue and in power than they were 2-3 years ago.

It's tough to adjust sometimes. Plus, like it or not, CF is a timesink. A great, layered timesink, but a timesink, nonetheless.

Personally my current has no problems at all against any of the OP classes in CF. That could be because I adjusted, or maybe I've just been lucky.

It is worth noting that my most recent char is a blast to play, but in a much different way than my more well-known chars.

But I do think I represent quite a few people who no longer enjoy playing. I'm sure there are many justifiable reasons for that but nope I can't say I enjoy the time I put into CF except for interesting RP designs at this point in it's history.

Well, to be honest I can't explain why resist mental was almost never helping you. You right I was landing all songs sleep, distort not to say about -str/-dex songs by the first attempt on you almost every time. It wasn't that easy on other few who used it. Also Laernoch wasn't the build to compete the bard at all. You coudn't decently lag, so yes even if I won't be able to land songs I'd use dispel and be fine. But it was the question of survivability not winning the fight when I was fighting axe and/or greeting warrior with resist mental up when I was bashed down for like 15 rounds and then couldn't land distort and have to run near death. Just there were rather few who used that. And again bards are the worst match for giants, so my coment about resist mental is more to those who have more than 20 int.

nt-

Sletren: Hey, so.. why'd you stay?
Kornuel: Fool.
k talshidar
You have been KILLED!!
Sletren: ...

I laughed so hard that night. Still had that song that shows me only 0/0/0, and I didn't think the talshidar was that tough. Ahh well.

Good times man, we fought a lot, I always enjoyed it. GLWYN

Awesome character. Kornuel was an amazing bard. I enjoyed you as an ally and as a semi-enemy. You seemed a bit new, but then Eoria totally threw me off when I was Siilthlyzrin, so I took that feeling with a grain of salt. I showed you around a bunch because Healer + Bard is capable of a lot more then Healer + any other class. And I liked you.

Had I made Emperor, you're damn right you would have been War Master sooner. Well played on the Council for that.

I remember one time, there was about 6 Imperials on, I was yelling and commanding one blade about getting the codex. You sign on and go right after the codex. I just about mass anathemad everyone but you. Had I gotten the Codex before I calmed down, I would have. Way for staying on my good side where so many others failed.

BattleCharmed

Awesome char. Maaan, I found my partner in suicide raids/reraids/fights.

You say 'Lets try?'
Kornuel says 'Why not?'

It was awesome. I have only one complain. Maan. You were the Warmaster. Damn, lead your Sect. LEAD IT. Yes, sometimes you can piss the hell out of people. But its the EMPIRE. Its about the Darkness and the Order. Eh.

To haters: leave the flame for my farewell thread.

Well, to be honest there were almost noone to lead Though you right I doubt I would be able to overcome myself and piss someone off with anathema or even demotion...hehe maybe later I become better in that aspect

You were much tougher with Kornuel than with Liriana. Congratulations for cracking the code with regards to using the class well.

I think you were cool from a game mechanics perspective. Very active and always willing to fight.

You fooled me with feign weakness early on. I died to you and Klurak once because I thought I could finish you off. Heh.

The character itself was bland to say the least though. This is merely a friendly suggestion:
Now that you have the mechanics down, try to expand your role
a little further than just kill your enemies and raiding.
Also consider a cabal with more restrictions than Empire. It will
develop your skills and hopefully you will have fun in the process.

Good luck, have fun and all that.

Though more likely I would try to crack other class first or just explore . I suck in it.

I resent the being lumped in with those who do. I usually fought you solo unless I saw an oppertunity to ambush you when you were near dead. Any vuln_mental fire giant would do the same.

one of those gangers, it doesn't change my feeling of the whole cabal as of couple ganking opportunites sitting under chameleon waiting to gank someone's ass. And I don't say the Cabal have to be taken off, or it's broken and have no purpose of existing. I just say that I personaly and just I hate it and realy doubt I would ever try to be on Outlanders side. That's all.

because I feel exactly the same about Empire. Hah.

Maybe, I haven't been against Empire yet, so it can be close to Outlanders in ganking/looting. But comparing to all other cabals Outlanders are the most ganging. Just my feeling though, nothing more

You were tough, even with my build you were tough. The reason I was probably the only villager you killed must be my conservative style, I can recally a few close fights we had and a time or two when me and Inger managed to get you, I felt bad that one time you got full'd by some lowbie when you died in the ruins, I tried my best convince him to return everything but he would not budge. You seemed ganky at first and from the complaints I had heard in my lowbie ranks about Imperial ganks. But to be frank you were Ballsy, you always came alone when you had the chance and sometimes fought two or three and even took down one or two of them. God aweful fiend edge and tragic repertoire. Well played bard. I wish we could have had a decider one on one. GLWYN!

Ruhktanshi, Puritan Voice.

Yep, heh you surely worth mention. Cool bard, not that we interacted much other than fights not that I was looking for that, but I liked you. I can't say that I was looking to fight you either. In bard vs bard fight if we skip preping part(usualy I was lazy enough to not burn my preps and never used even resist mental) elves is on upper hand vs humans. Honestly I just didn't see how I can kill you solo when I can't prevent you from running and can't create decent fiend. I did try but after some attempts skipped it as it was more of waste of time as noone of us was ever close to kill in one on one fights. About full loot, well it happens and I was never blaming you. Anyway I suffered maybe one or two fulls from village while about 5-6 from outies.
One more thing. You are one more who somehow decided I had fiend edge. Not Liriana nor Kornuel ever had it So it's only repertoire thing. Can't say I was looking to get it as well, though close to the end of Kornuel's life I was concidering it as a good boost vs elves and giants who dared to use resist mental Just never met requirement/had enough edge points.

Fjarn. Could. Not. Kill. Kornuel.

Actually, replace "Kill" with "Survive". If you landed fiend, it was the end. I think I survived it once, with the help of a friendly bard's healing. What was more annoying to me was never being able to hit you in melee.

I mean that literally.

Dodge, evasion, echoes, and a morale approaching negative infinity (whose affects persisted until logoff or death, even after the -morale wore off) meant that even with a weapon you didn't know, I couldn't touch you. I had drive to lag and critical hit for damage, but even that couldn't keep up with simple Fire and Ice spam. There was simply no worse build for Fjarn to go up against.

Ah well. You were a good sport, leaving most of my equipment most of the time. So I returned the favor when I caught you held by fillet in the grove that one time. Cheap as it may have been, watching your corpse fall to the ground just once in Fjarn's days filled my heart with happiness.

I don't think we really interacted in any more significant way. It was just a lot of fighting and a lot of running back to my corpse. Good luck with your next, as they say. Unless it's an imperial bard. In that case, may you forever roll 1's.

Once you sung fiend I wasn't so sure of a victory. Then the RNG won the day with the multiple stuns via eagle inscribed. Do you have a log of where I waded into you/waserax/velhdriss in imperial lands?

Even without resist mental up you always seem to have a hard time landing any songs aside from fiend.

Other than the one assassinate, did I ever even come close to killing you any of the other times we fought? It seemed like I did, but so far I've assumed it was just your bard edginess at work.

Well, once I fled from you in about 80 hp(though it happened not once with others), with broken wrist and was waiting you to come in Throne room to try to finish me. Well thanks to feign weakness it seems Though more likely I'd just run away.