Sun Feb 19 00:23:19 2012

At 6 o'clock AM, Day of Thunder, 10th of the Month of the Heat
on the Theran calendar Donderston perished, never to return.

Race:	svirfnebli
Class:	warrior
Level:	51
Alignment:	Neutral
Ethos:	Neutral
Cabal:	NEXUS, Nexus, Seekers of Balance
Age:	218
Hours:	185

Before anything, I want to apologize to Nexus for not being able to stick with this character. This really is a great example of why I'm bad at the game. Here I have a character that is PK successful, has great cabal presence and was pretty much a for-sure future Rhyme. Unfortunately my play times dropped for a while, and now that I have all the free time in the world again I can't get motivated to play the character. Hell, I had a couple role additions planned out (on leadership differences in Nexus and Donderston's take on it) that I didn't even finish. Strangely enough, when I logged on to delete it gave me Rhyme due to a tiebreaker mechanic (despite the fact I hadn't voted at all). Confused, I stuck around for a while and things got really awkward. Luckily Raiyhn fixed that up before long.

Part of the problem was the build. It's extremely strong straight up, especially if you're willing to prep (like anything, I know), but I'm the type of player that usually likes characters with more options available to them. I was never the bash;bash;flurry type, and with a svirf you pretty much limit that to just flurry. I tried to get fancy at times, but you get a lot more accomplished if you just run in flurrying with a lot of damroll and a couple noremoves equipped. That, of course, negates the point of having a second spec most of the time, and I usually couldn't even throwdown and stun (not that I practiced stun beyond 75% anyway).

The other part was that logins felt like a chore, and getting into a character is the only thing that ever saves me from that. In addition to the endless money/prep gathering, being Nexus means you have to work to thin the veil as well. During the good logins you've got a shifter buddy and you split up to gather items. You then thin the veil and bond and you don't have to really worry about preps much at all. But the bad logins are brutal, and if the villagers online are smart you'll never get the veil thinned by yourself, forcing you to fight them when they're juiced up (often without even vanguard). The fact they don't have to worry about preps, and the fact that they often heavily influence the veil just by being online really allows them to be one step ahead of you at all times, only adding to the frustration.

A quick note about the character/RP: Donderston was very much self-absorbed, and someone who really never had to work too hard at anything. But he was certainly the best at whatever he did, in his mind. As a result, he ended up emotional and quite immature. Amusing to his allies, but probably annoying to most of his enemies. If you lost to him, that was normal. If you beat him, well, you didn't beat him - you got lucky.

A lot of the characters I interacted with most have passed on, but I'll leave this with a few mentions:

Nexus: I enjoyed most everyone in the cabal, and it's really one of the better environments to level in. When Puhguly deleted, I had already been debating about doing so myself for a few days. After seeing his post I resolved to try and get back into it for the good of the cabal, but I just couldn't do it. I hope you guys continue strong even after the wave of current hero deletions, and the current village numbers.

Solec: What you do for Nexus cannot be understated, and I don't even know how you had the patience to play with only the forms you had for so long. If I owe anyone an apology it's you most of all. I hope you don't hold it against me, and I had a lot of fun running around with you even if half the time it was just to the same area. As a player, I really didn't want to use your warcry at first, but it just fit the character so well that I had to do it!

Battle: Don't stray too far from how almost-bearable you were under Akedeh. Despite my hatred of the cabal in a mechanics sense, I had very few problems with most of the characters I interacted with.

Mauz: For a while the only thing I really could say about you was that you landed crunch kots immediately the first 3-4 times we fought. After that, my luck evened out though! From what I saw later on, you were a great voice of reason for the village, and I'm surprised to see you not in a leader position.

Rindros: I'm only mentioning you here because I love the dynamic between Nexus/Scion at times, and I really regret not pushing the 'grudgingly allies against the village' thing even further. There was quite a bit of verbal sparring left to be done, sirrah.

Other cabals: I tried to talk with people as much as possible about the balance, because I know it can be a serious annoyance to strike first and try to sort it out later. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Fights against non-battle were rare for Donderston in either case.

Unfortunately for much of Rindros' life, Nexus has been sort of a non-existent entity for him. I'd get attacked for the balance sometimes when I was very low level, but only once at hero, after I'd killed two maran in a row, if I recall (at least one), and Puhguly and a pachyderm attacked me in the palace while I was fighting one or two others. It was a pleasant surprise, and a really fun fight. Otherwise after one time when there were 6 fortress members on and I was alone, I was told that it was balanced, so I never asked again. Rindros wouldn't ask for help anyway, since it would be bad for his reputation.

Donderston was sort of interesting, and got my respect for being willing to throw down with me for killing his allies sometimes. I think we only grouped up to kill villagers once, when I just walked in on you already raiding. Probably for the best, since when non-cabal members try to raid with me they usually end up dead from my own power. Stray lightning, their own skills angering the demon, etc.

Your RP was a bit obtuse, but not over the top enough to be annoying, so well done, sirrah.