Thu Dec 1 11:26:51 2011

At 2 o'clock PM, Day of Deception, 16th of the Month of the Winter Wolf
on the Theran calendar Taerg perished, never to return.

Race:	duergar
Class:	warrior
Level:	51
Alignment:	Evil
Ethos:	Chaotic
Cabal:	BATTLE, the BattleRagers, Haters of Magic
Age:	179
Hours:	270

First I want to thank everyone for making this character enjoyable. The reason for my deletion was that basically I would log on and not have the fire I had with the character originally.

I created this character to create a successful scout, as I have had some very successful defenders and berserkers. I think a well thought out scout is extremely dangerous, but to a different subset of enemies than what is dangerous to a berserker. Fully prepped invokers I would destroy, while berserkers were meat for them. And on the flip side, bashing giant warriors would dominate me, while most berserkers could take them or at least put in a good fight.

As for specs, I think trapping beneath thunder and cry of thunder with a heavy polearm made for a very good tactic. Exploiting a vulnerability on top of that made for very dangerous fights for enemies. For those that say this build's danger factor was very situational, you were wrong. To a class who could not completely command deny me, I was most likely going to kill you. As polearm defense on a duergar was surprisingly excellent.

For mages that recall away, almost all that did would have gotten away from a berserker anyway. For mages who were in the village, berserkers actually had a harder time killing opponents in the village than this build did. And since my specs allowed me to double and sometimes triple entwine in conjunction with cutoff, the toughest opponents had some of the most difficulty with me. Those who prepped with DR instead of hit points sometimes died in four rounds even with barrier/aura/shield/stoneskin/shields since I could hack off 150 to 250 hit points every two rounds plus my trapping 100 damage roll normal hits. It was not uncommon to do 750 points of damage in 4 rounds with two critical strikes.

One thing this build did which helped me seal kills is it invoked PANIC in people. They are taking hits (10 to 15 points of damage each hit) and suddenly 1/3 of their hit points were gone. This of all things allowed me to get kills as people panicked and made mistakes instead of staying calm. Many people could have overwhelmed me with their own damage but instead spammed flee or went for an exit strategy. But usually by that time unless you succeeded in that first flee, you were dead.


With that goodbyes.

Akresius: Thanks for all the interactions and the tattoo. I wish I played during your times, and I appreciate you taking a chance on me through those times. Great immortal with a great religion.

Thror: Sorry for bailing before age death. Just everything was getting a little boring. That may be one issue with scouts more than anything, and my fault too. My character was built around critical strike, and just like a shapeshifter, I got tired of spamming "critical strike" all the time. I was hoping to get dispelling critical but I understand why I didn't get it. That would maybe be too overpowered :).

Battle:
Tontik: Guess I didn't outlive you. Keep on trucking. We made a good team. Thanks for making me your dark horse selection for Commander in the Rites.

Akedeh: Good job with Commander. I was completely surprised I got even invited to the final three. Bolzhor deserved it more from a Rites standpoint, but from an overall village standpoint, I guess I understood why I got the invite.

Bolzhor: Tough one as are all berserkers with sword and whip, and giant sized, and angry. You were a nasty git and was fun running around with you and Odrallag. Understanding you both, well, annoying but fun.

Odrallag: Solid work imm'ing. Was fun as well. Good luck.

Others, post and I'll reply.

Enemies

Fortress:
Garwern: My nemesis. Finding the way to kill you and actually doing it was my greatest successes. Worst possible matchup for a duergar villager is a two handed defiance wielding counter striking double virtue paladin dwarf. I think you understood my hit and run tactics. I wasn't really trying to wear you down, but looking for an opening to exploit to take the advantage. Sometimes you have to taunt the RNG until you get a good run of luck with it to exploit.

Eachainn: Eh. I understand me being difficult to fight, but you could at least try by yourself or with one other sometimes.

Caer: Great paladin too. A little more fragile so critical hit was actually more effective against you. Garwern could eat four or five before being in trouble. Other paladins not dwarf would panic after two and I would then exploit the panic and kill them. That is one thing you didn't do which is why you were good, you didn't panic when that OBLIT hit you.

Vall: That attack on you at the Maran with Eleagra was roleplay driven and part of my role. I had a rage element to my roleplay that I was trying to "control" and that was a break in the control. I got in massive trouble for it by an unknown BATTLE immortal. All in all I was willing to eat the uninduct and actually suggested it, but the BATTLE immortal had different plans.

Nexus:
Good fights all around. From Gdot to the porcudillo to the gorisnake to Wouso. All were great interactions and great fights. I very much appreciated the gear respect. Especially from the minotaur who at the very end got killed by me and then fulled by that low level imperial minotaur. I just could not stick around to guard the corpse because Eachainn and another came in and dropped quicksand on me with 250 hit points left.

Scion
Ober: Great fights, you are one tough cookie with that behir. I could never puzzle out how to win against you until I got that double entwine at the giant. The one great thing about cutoff is it tells me entwine has worn off and if you fail a single flee, I get the time to reentwine. I think I reentwined the gorisnake 3 times in a row as the turtle as he tried to wait out the entwine.

Zuzuza: Necromancer, name probably wrong. That skeleton warrior mob is kind of rediculously overpowered. To have a mob that does unblockable and consistant lagging techniques as a necromancer with a full army is kind of foolish. The one thing about necromancers is that they couldn't keep you in battle very well. Now they have summonable mobs that do it for you.

Empire
Eleagra: Your build trumps my build, and well most builds. That build is so 2007 :). But again you do it well.

Tzar: See below for Dvalygg. I just don't like the necromancer class in general.

Scarab
Dvalygg: Hide in water, wait for drowned one to pull people under, recall at bleeding wounds, bah bah. Spam sleep. I just don't have a lot of love or care for necromancers as a class in general. I know you are doing what you need to to be successful and its not your fault. Its just the class is so based on Super Luck Sleep = I win button, it takes the fun out of fighting you. Sleep, I think, should have the same timer as other physical sleep attacks. You get one chance, not 10. Oh well good luck with that.

Thanks all. Probably won't see me about for a few months depending on the itch.

The first time I got a little lucky, and you learned something about druid bearform :)

After that you really got your #### together as far as fighting me. After you dominated me on Galadon outskirts it turned into "I'll fight him if I have to, but maybe we'll just nod and walk by each other". Good character.

Nothing like a 1000 pound bear pouncing like a lithe little tiger through the forest. I mean come on, pounce on a bear? That just doesn't make sense. Fear the 1000 pound 16 dexterity bear pouncing after a 22 dex duergar weighing 190 pounds total.

Not bitter, just a surprise. After that and fighting many other necromancers, I learned a thing or two about how to fight you and them. Keep trucking, good character.

You had a good tactics and even with anti-drive edge and inventory full of corpses you easily separated me and my dear undeads. Hated fighting you because of your combo.

About sleep, IF i'm not wrong, there IS a timer: if you fail sleep attempt, next attempts will be more difficult. I THINK I've heard imms said that before, but MAYBE it's just my imagination.

Well done, again. One of the villagers who weren't #### at that fortlove time (but maybe just because you were duergar) :)

But from my understanding of it, it just makes it more difficult, not impossible. So as a level 51 lich with nightmare edge so you don't eat hits as well as spellcraft. That is not that huge of a problem. Also, that protection, from what I understand of it, goes away on the next tick. So if you attempt to sleep, they have that resistance just for that tick. Next tick, its like a new sleep attempt.

Physical sleep makes you immune to sleep attempts for 5 to 7 ticks after the failed attempt. It just doesn't jive that you can keep spamming it, especially with that nightmare edge which basically means no ramifications for a failed sleep. Nothing like sporting -121 savs versus spell and getting slept on the second attempt.

So respect to you as a character and player, but I just simply hate the class.

However, some characters are almost impossible to sleep at all, if ever. So, it's quite balanced. Out of all our fights, I've slept you only once.

Wouldn't change things much for me, I think.

Thanks. I enjoyed being in the village with you. Had a lot of good times and your rocked that combo out really well. I hope you come back with something that holds your interest better. Either way, GLWYN.

If you'd only knew how many builds trumps mine:) Oh well, guess the grass is greener on the other side. Though closer to the end I finaly stoped messing myself with you and fights started to look totaly onesided. But first I was one of those who were entering that panic mode you described. Anyway you were one of the villagers I really liked. Very well done and luck with your next whenever it comes.

Ah, and also I never ment to misguide you with that agreement. Trust me.

Yeah, I was a rough matchup for you, and I knew it. I typically asked Fort to hold off as coming at you with numbers just seemed unnecessary to me.

That said, I think you significantly evened the score of our matchups, I'm not sure what our tally was but as far as deaths for a long time it was 4-0 me, then you started coming back, and may have drawn it even.

And yes, RNG is a fickle bitch. Most of the time I knew what I was doing letting my protections drop while fighting you. That said, I know at least one of my deaths I failed Aristaeia twice(at 200 mana a pop!) and so failed to give myself that 300hp that would have really made a difference. Gah!

It would seem someone went and recreated an account under the name of Garwern, to accomplish what purpose I cannot imagine. I do not want to jack Taerg's deaththread so this is the only post I'll be making about it, simply wanted to bring it to the attention of the admins. I'll likely simply refrain from posting in the future, luckily few of Garwern's contemporaries are left.

It's not like we recognize the name.

You could always be Garwern2465312 or something, with the number series changing randomly in every post if that bothers you so much.

How could dear old yuzxra be forgotten. I loved our fights and you were the only one I tried to fight relentlessly in hopes of besting you one day. In all honesty, you were one of the biggest challenges I faced fights either went I needed to outdamage you before you outdamaged me. And our fights could sometimes be so close I let it get the best of me...Akresius was not pleased. Anyways I learned a lot from you and wish I got to know you better as an Akresius follower because you seemed to understand alot about the chalice that I didn't. Anyways GLWYN and I hope to fight either against you or alongside you again.

Intensify+transcend bless<critical hit and your collectivism in a fight.

Please continue to make kickass chars. This is a great char all around I loved everything.

I enjoyed the few times we happened upon each other. The last time with Teriseta, my Healer-sense was tingling something fierce. I hadnt heard from her in a while, so I just checked the Village to be absolutely sure...

...####, Teriseta is entwined and convulsing at the massive giant, and she'll probably die to the next Critical Hit Taerg gets in, regardless of whether I drop a sanctuary or a rejuvenate on her! Commence balls-to-the-wall rescue!

That Altruism lag felt like an eternity. I expected to drop at any moment when you redirected onto me. After somehow managing to tank you for several rounds at 1 hitpoint, Teriseta's spot heals (nicely done!) and my own post-altruism rejuvenate, we both escaped to tweak the nose of death another day.

You were a tough competitor with a highly specialized build well suited to defense.

GLWYN!

From an opponent standpoint, at first you went from pretty boring to fight (entwine, warcry, critical spam = hold return;brandish). Thankfully it got pretty fun as you went along since you were around often. I tried a few taunts just to get a little change in hopes it would make the fights a little more fun and I was really happy to see you change up your tactics against me later on, it made for a lot better fights and I was really surprised you never killed me. Offhanding my instrument, eyejabbing, trying to time the offhand for when I held the talisman, all good tricks. Of course not being able to blind me made them less likely to work, but still, was good to see that you were always adapting and improving your tactics. That was quite impressive to see, since lots of villagers I would slay would just try the same tactic time and time again and die each time.

I still say the build is generally far less effective outside of cursed ground though. But you certainly made me think twice about striking the village. :)

I saw this character a fair bit and just wanted to say, "well played."

"W"

man all theese awesome up and coming players i see that are totally capeable of taking my spot of drillmaster when i die (trust me its getting close even though i have been on less cause of thanksgiving and school) and then you up and delete on me...man

I really liked having you a round and being a damage soak is always good when you have something with you to throw out some critical strikes, and man double entwine with me and you around we made people nervous as hell raiding.....

oh well keep it up and stay with the village was good to have you around and you did a really good job

tontik

You were a good opponent, tough as hell but classy too. Enjoyed fighting you even though it was always one sided, whether it was in or out of the woods.

I knew when you was on we wasn't keeping the Key, and if I somehow got lucky enough to retrieve it, you'd be right back to take it again. Logins with you around was fun since I always knew there'd be some excitement.

I thought you were a very well-played character who was never afraid to mix it up. I spent a lot of hours snooping you and you always seemed to be on target with your rp. You were classy without fawning all over your enemies; in other words, you showed sportsmanship as I felt an evil duergar should. I enjoyed watching your fights, especially with Garwern.

You are a classic case of how gank-o-meter doesn't always tell the whole story about how much ganging a character does. I was originally going to make a low GOM a large part of my criteria, but you helped me reshape my view. Of course a 1.00 GOM is awesome becaue it leaves no room for error. Yet there are a lot of situations that come up in which your GOM will go up through no fault of your own. Thank you for showing me that through my snoops.

I know the invoked tattoo ability didn't work (going to have someone look at that), but I hope you at least got to see the one super cool effect I got the coders to add to it.

You were a solid character and I'd like to see you as a follower again.

Done well the raisers break on you like waves on rocks!

Shame I never got to fight IN the cabal as I would have enjoyed fighting alongside the 'GREAT' *cough* 'TEARG' Bloodeye!

Stupid freakin critical hits!! Used to piss me off fighting against you sometimes. Great fights though. I liked your combo and you pulled it off well. Too bad I wont get to get revenge for our last fight. Cant wait to see your next char. See you in the fields.

SURE, don't even post about your fellow scout! I really liked Taerg and had a blast when he was around. I was really hoping you'd get Commander. Nothing against Akedeh, I'd just spent a lot more time running around with you, and we definitely clicked.

Shame I never got to talk much Akresius with you. Never really had enough downtime to do it.

I do have to agree, scout is SUCH a different experience than any of the other BattleRager paths. Fights that I watch berserkers mow through, I get run rough-shod, but enemies that give 2 or 4 people trouble at once w/ combination damredux + area of attack, I can utterly destroy.

Anyways, get yourself back here soon!

I was very disappointed when this came up. You were a huge asset and we could do pretty grand things when it was you, me and any other berserker. Your role play was pristine at all times, and after you came to me admitting that lapse in judgement I was watching you for a replacement if Tontik ever kicked the bucket. Come back soon and keep bringing those quality characters to this amazing game.

And the skeletal warrior hand-spec is kind of overpowered on that class, I would agree. But then, if it's a tool available to him (and not buggy), you can't blame him for using it.

It's balanced out by something that I'm definitely not going to tell anyone about ;-)

And also, I don't know if I even fought Taerg? Maybe once? I'm 99% sure I didn't kill him. Where is the OP'ness?

You were a GRRRREAT presence in the village. Sucks to see you go. :(

Now who am I going to get to WTFPWN Solec...

My build trumps Solec's build in all ways. Porcupine/Armadillo against a Damage oriented Scout who can do OBLITS to your armadillo and entwine you. I always felt bad fighting him, but he was always brave and one of the few Nexus who chanced raids.

For you I want to thank you for all those forgings. Adding on another 5 to 6 damage roll helped a lot. You were also secretly dangerous due to your hit point bank and being a sword spec. I saw you survive and win in situations where most would have died. You are quite dangerous.

Fought a lot of duergar in this character's lifetime... you were easily the toughest of them all, and I think you would have been even tougher if you weren't a battlerager because of increased DR. Critical hit helps but it wasn't the make or break of our fights - that lay in your weapon choices and attack patterns.

Good luck with your next, see you on the Road.

I cannot discount critical hit. When I went with the combo of specs of polearm and whip/flail, I had to come to the conclusion that being fancy doesn't cut it. Trying to strip or eyejab or this or that, or slice or whatever, usually got me killed. I had one purpose, damage, and when I focused to that tenet of battle, I did extremely well (more than I thought). I personally don't think I would have been that scary as anything but a scout. Resistance gave me just enough time to make the person I was fighting think if they are going to survive one more critical hit. And if they panicked or made the wrong calculation, they died. Without critical hit, I would need flurry or something which this build doesn't have at all.

I heard many things about Taerg being a dangerous enemy from my fort friends. I had some battles with berserkers and they easily ruined Anerus. Expected the same from Taerg, but in the few fights, he never did same.
Was it because you were still trying different tactics? or because Anerus used polearm? I like to learn pros and cons of a champion, so asking your idea about it.

GLWYN

We really didn't have that many fights. I think we have three, maybe four total? The first one we had my resist was down and I was returning from a raid so your charge did a huge amount of damage to me and I prtty much ran. The second time the RNG took the best of me as well as learning about Champion disarm resistance (which I never knew about). So I was actually puzzling that out during our fights more than just killing you straight out.

After that, and the tenet of just causing damage sunk in, I think we had one fight where I didn't kill you but you had to get out of dodge.

So I was trying to figure things out some still during our fights in the beginning. Then never really crossed paths after that.

yah, it was about 4 and first was as you said. so I didn't try to chase you. the 2nd and 3rd was something like you learning as you said, it was what I guessed too. the 4th you forced anerus to run as his aura fall just in the middle of battle if I remember right. but still didn't look that bad as I heard that critical strikes can easily go through sanctuary (which actually it did) but it seemed that anerus can heal himself having charity on.
I had to two heal choices totally about 170hp. one critical miss and I had the chance to wrath! I guess that combo (paladin/charity) was good vs Taerg. But anyway, we had not enough chance to fight when we both knew better what to do.

Even if everything went perfect for me, I could not beat you solo, polearm just messes a ranger up. You were a great enemy though, and that time at the village...I know I typed camo;camo;camo, but it just was rng hating on me.

GLWYN

-Lethmitel

You were quite persistant. That one time I thought I'll go out and get snared. I did not expect you to call in three others and hump me down. After that I swore I would full you for it. But I always soften and leave everything when I kill people no matter my history with them. In that last fight I knew you were monkey'ing around with a staff of return and if I didn't dirt you you would have gotten away. I laughed when you snorted because I think we both knew why. I can see you typing "hold return" and right before it went through I dirted you. You were a fun enemy.

Yeah, that one time I had you snared and "called" them in, was just I said over CB you were snared cause one of them was hunting you elsewhere? I think. But I was going to try myself, but they all got excited, so I was like, WTH, I'll never land the kill myself against you anyway.

And yes, that was exactly what happened that day with the dirt...after that I made sure to have an alias for it like everything else...can't believe I forgot that one..

Totally wanted to be Ak's first follower but school/work have conspired against me!

The fact that you made people complain about polearm Scout Battle is comendable, and I just wanted to say well done.

:)

Its a curse.

I always pictured Tony the Tiger going "GRRRRRRRREAT!!!!"