Wed Nov 2 12:49:43 2011

At 3 o'clock AM, Day of the Moon, 35th of the Month of the Dragon
on the Theran calendar Volker perished, never to return.

Race:	human
Class:	invoker
Level:	51
Alignment:	Evil
Ethos:	Orderly
Cabal:	SCION, the Scions of Eternal Night
Age:	60
Hours:	300

It was great fun playing Volker. I had a very unique role idea, which could only realistically be executed by someone who's read some philosophy. Volker was a lecturer in Voralian City for Logic (a sub-set of Philosophy, and also a sub-set of Mathematics). It's all in the role.

Volker Halbach is actually the name of my logic lecturer, and he really did write a book called The Logic Manual (which in Volker the character's role is his central work!).

I got a lot of IMM love on Volker, and I'm very thankful for that. I hope you guys enjoyed the role - it's not often I produce a role I find personally interesting. If I had time to keep playing I would probably have done a lot of fun things with that role.

Past characters:
Charine, Scion Chancellor human OE conjurer.
Maldaris, Scion arial 7 path invoker.
Humbert, Fortress Marshall storm sword/mace warrior.
Olaf, Lyriana, Elenia, Adalanthal, Calcifer, and a whole lot of others...

Beront - Ah, I remember inducting you right before I deleted Charine. Then you inducted me as Mharlndarn. You were incredibly deathful, though you did hunt alone mostly and seldom did the whole cabal raiding thing. Given that I was playing an invoker (which is suited to big fights) I did a lot of raiding, so we didn't quite synergise.

Flaaayin - Really really hated fighting you. I couldn't kill you (though that once with the Head in the Chasm was just burning from immolation) and I could prevent myself from getting killed by you solo, but it just meant that I would refuse to fight since every fight would leave me crippled for 20-30 hours (I had two 50 hour neuro poisons once).

Twist - Very sad I didn't get to be Chancellor beside you. I would have gone for it if I had the time, though I wasn't sure if you'd try to block me :)

Can't remember everyone - Please post if you remember me, I'll try to respond.

I stopped playing because I had no time for a proper, competitive character. I'm about to buy a keyboard for my laptop, but between academic work, summer internship applications, varsity sports, and a social life, I've barely had time for any (solo) leisure at all. I literally go home at 11 pm and sleep, and wake up and go to the library/College/lectures. I do look at the forums though.

Basically, I played Volker because I was convinced I wasn't playing invokers right, and that I could. I feel like I've vindicated my invoker-playing ability after playing Volker :) Invokers require a very methodical, careful style of play, which is why I envy Onya. I know a lot of people dislike her playstyle, but that's really the best way to dominate as an invoker.

I forced myself to play more methodically by having a role which was pretty much cold, calculating and robotic (and also closet-homosexual and sexually perverse, but that's another bit...). I really, really liked Volker's role - I think it's the best role I've had for any character - and I hope you guys up there enjoyed it too.

I PKed from levels 12 to 51. There's probably at least one PK for every level Volker's been at. The very first PK was cyclone spam on a thief who'd run out of moves in Ar'atouldain. I think I had about 80 PKs before heroing, though I might be wrong. Lowbie invokers can indeed PK, but invokers are much, much stronger at hero. I would literally log in at level 51 with despoil/ABS and know that no-one could do anything to stop me in a fight, and if they ran me low on hp and mana with numbers, I could get out any time. This was especially so when I had the swirling black orb.

Re: stoneshatter: Please do not use stoneskin against invokers. Also, remove your stone items. I won't target stone items, but I stoneshatter people I suspect of having stoneskin.

Some of my favourite prey were villagers, because many of them were forced to defend. Berserkers in particular would suffer from immolate/arcing lightning and die quite often. With full ABS/st/desensitize/ethos prot/prot/greater shield, I'd take scratches from the Big D (after parrying half his stuff). I got quite a number of kills just cornering villagers in the village. That said, spellbane is such a major pain in the arse.

Reksah - I'd particularly like it if you posted here. I've had incredible interactions with you. It was almost funny how I met you at level 20+ right after I played Charine who also spoke with you...

I *think* you're the one I primarily fought, and not Volkov. If so, you were very tough. Really, really tough. Sorry about the little things I did to annoy you(like impale/boneshatter/offhand). It wasn't my intention to piss you off, I was just at a loss of things to do to kill you.

That said, even though it's been a while, I do think I managed you a few times with phoenix brand + vuln or something similar. And I know you got me a couple of times too.

All in all a very well played, very powerful Scion. Well done, and I hope you come back. Your characters bring a lot to the mud.

Hey Gurzgred,

You were very well played too. Although a hero warrior posed little to no threat to a careful invoker, if you had an ally I had to be very careful. That nasty staff of yours was really annoying too.

Impale/shatter/offhand - That's fair game, I had an offhand which was very dangerous, and you're perfectly entitled to remove it. It's like me stoneshattering stoneform. Don't think I was ever mad at that.

Thanks - Gurzgred brought a lot to his enemies and to the fort as well. I'll come back as some character - maybe a neutral, imperial, or a villager :) I've played a lot of Fort/Scion by now. I'm not sure when I will actually have the time, but perhaps this winter holidays.

You rang?


I liked Volker the most out of your characters I've closely watched/interacted with, though I didn't realize this was you until I was asking higher-up imms with advice when your time died. I effectively expanded the capacity of Scion by one while you were in your dormant state, so you don't need to worry about having taken up a spot that could have gone to others.

When I have the time to play as much as I like, I tend to very closely watch both successful lowbie mages as well as Scions/applicants that seem to be taking the time to engage in the game in a positive manner before they hit hero/find their wands/get inducted.

Part of this is because I tend to enjoy playing lowbie pk mages, but I'm terrible at them at hero! It's usually much easier for me to actually kill someone from 20-30 as an invoker than it is at 41-51, so I'm always interested in watching how other people take on that challenge.

I thought your role was a marked improvement from Humbert/Charine and it was entertaining watching you play the 'straight' man to people like crazy Mharlndarn. A leadership position would have been yours for the taking pretty much any time there was an open spot and you would have been able to commit to the time.

Feel free to email if you have more questions/comments.

Hey Reksah,

Thanks for taking the time with me. I'm glad you liked the role! I usually find it so hard to come up with an original role idea which ties into Thera in a meaningful, playable way.

Lowbie PK as an invoker is high success, but also high failure. I remember dying a few times to bash and unlucky combat rounds even though I took precautions all the time as a lowbie mage. It was easier to land kills at lowbie ranks because people often die to 2 spells or 3, but the risks were greater. Hero was much easier, but I often felt at almost zero risk of dying regardless of number of foes if I remained careful throughout the login.

I would love to make a follower of yours someday.

I played a fortress invoker named Rhone during your heyday a few months ago that fought with you a bunch of times. I just assumed you were one of the usual scion invokers (cerunnir) and so was overjoyed the time I managed to defeat you while scion held the scepter (that invoker v invoker fight with scion powers in play is pretty challenging). Now that I know it's you, I can't believe what an improvement Volker was over Maldaris (who I also fought with another char). Well done!

Good luck with your next!

You were one of the few Fortressites who really scared the hell out of me. Maybe it's just the nature of the invoker class - anyone who could easily dispel my shields was very dangerous. Invokers can dispel other invokers' shields easily, but other dispellers have difficulty. You were very, very skilled, and it's great to see skilled players playing non-traditional (warrior, paladin) classes in MARAN.

so never really kept up with the character. Was that not the case? Nice title.

I'd say rich man's if anything, but that's in the eye of the beholder.

Thanks. I liked the title too, suited the character's mannerism very well.

I don't think I PKed as well as Volkov, that's for sure. He gets more PKs per hour than I do, and I am a little too risk-loving for a good powerhouse invoker.

nt

Perhaps even inducted before Volkov rolled. It could be easily checked, but I am lazy and not logged in :)

Hope all your studies are going well man.

Was fun to kill people together even if we were trying to kill each other at the same time (against those two rangers at the Tree).

When you get more time, make another one brother!