Wed Feb 22 11:43:28 2012

At 2 o'clock AM, Day of Deception, 9th of the Month of the Grand Struggle
on the Theran calendar Gralnath perished, never to return.

Race:	frost
Class:	ranger
Level:	49
Alignment:	Evil
Ethos:	Chaotic
Cabal:	OUTLANDER, the Outlanders of Thar-Eris
Age:	197
Hours:	139

I did notice you doing a few things with Gralnath that looked a bit inexperienced (repeatedly bear-charging shield paladins for example) and you were less patient than most but I enjoyed the few times we hunted together.

Enjoyed running with you. Thanks for learning at times when I could tell you'd rather be doing something else.

Patience and opportunism is the key, I think, and whilst
I do not always practice what I preach (for various reasons), I am
a lot better in this than I used to be a couple of years ago when I played my first ranger.

I hope you understand my POV for that little IC incident at the Tree, I tried to make it up to you later in other ways.
Hopefully you learned something new!

GLWYN

I have no issues with outlanders fighting each other. My only beef with that incindent was i lost a nice axe I am pretty sure the orc grabbed. The aid you gave later on more than made up for it though.

Will keep your name whispering on the northern ice-bitten winds as long as can. Any advice?

Eat red leaves. Don't fight if you don't think thing will go your way. Keep preps onhand, expecially enlarge.

Edit - tried to preserve poster's identity, but that doesn't work when he posts using his handle. Oh well.

and with most other classes as well. I just don't have the patience to let the fight come to me most of the time and end up blowing a ranger's biggest advantage. I usually knew what I wanted to do, but always screwed it up somehow, or had someone I didn't want to fight or wasn't expecting stumble through the trap i was trying to set up. However, I think I've had 1 storm giant, 2 fire giant, and 1 cloud giant ranger's over the last three or 4 years, and this was my first giant ranger to break 5 pks, so that at least was an improvement.

In the end, my play time was going to drop a bit, and I wanted to move on to something else anyway, so wanted to free up the slot.

My only real substantive Frost Giant feedback is when i was a lowbie, there wasn't an entrance to mud school at the recall trench. Everything else was pretty much what I expected. Based on my fire giant savage rangers and orc hp gains previously, i had expcted hp gains from 18-20, but I guess ranger hps are capped at 19, so it was 18 or 19.

It usually seemed like I had better options than frost blade, so I didn't use the inherent much. Having a strengthened Jumnarl's and Artic Fury was awesome.

I really wished I had gone forester over mountaineer so I would have always had my vuln covered, but RP wise mountaineer seemed like a better choice.

Thank you's

Yindathos - thanks for all the metal conversions.

Rolas - Thanks for the induction

Barzbree - Loved running with you. Haven't been around much the last few days, so curious what happened.

Jasthrean - Thanks for the interactions. I've played enough outlander's to know you pretty much always up there, but not to see occasionally.

Scarabeous - Thanks for all the work you do and all you have added to the game. I actually ranked with you a bit when you were a mortal in the 20s back in the spring of 95 (I was Remaldo, a human ranger, and we were with Sinunion, my AP perma).

nt

Citius, altius, fortius... gelu in subucula mea habeo.

Heh.

I find two things interesting:

(1) I don't think there is a single Frost Giant with a positive PK ratio.
(2) I have received no feedback on the race apart from one e-mail that was about a bad match-up.

Especially in the low ranks where there are several easily available fire weapons of different types. Hitting vulns on a low dex race without time to improve defenses as anything half melee oriented is just like picking on a kid in a wheelchair.

Scar - I thought I gave you this feedback, immside, during one of the many conversations about the woeful pk ratios.

Or maybe that's the thing I wanted to talk you about when you went went and broke your ability to receive tells when working in your super awesome area on one of your super awesome projects. You're like Dexter in his laBORatory.

Well, we know about the readily available fiery weapons, but there's not a lot to be done about that. Unless, of course, we start limiting them like crazy. There MUST be an answer...!

(At least the next seasonal race won't have an issue with fire.)

And I'm like Dexter in his kill shirt and gloves; if, you know, Dexter was also an FRPG Alchemist who spent too much time dissertating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnp_F_BmkjY&feature=related <-It looks more like this.

Ah the voice of bygone days.

How about giving frost giants an inherent called snowman or something. In areas of great cold they can cover their body and armor in a layer of snow and ice gathered from their surroundings. This layer of ice and snow will temporarily protect them from fire and perhaps minor physical dam redux. As a penalty because you are so slippery your bashes are a fair bit harder to hit and have the coating fall off when they fight in a manner similar to armor of bone from a necro breaking off.

So in general if you knew you were going to get smacked by fire you can prepare yourself for it a bit but you can't entirely remove the vuln. I would also make it so the snow gets you to a not vuln fire state as opposed to a resist fire state. Going underwater/places of heat/deserts would make the snow melt off.

...you could use one of the incredibly easy to obtain preps that grants resist fire.

Or one of the much-harder-to-get-but-still-out-there pieces of eq that makes you resist fire at all times.

Just sayin'.

So idea number 2. Since this is more of a temporary huge weakness in the low ranks why not something like an inherent called... Hotfoot. The skill would only be really useful from level 1-30 with a declining return as you level up. Frost giants are particularily sensative to heat and as such are more jumpy. Give the the ability to dodge at a higher level of dex then their currently at against flaming weapons, I would suggest even letting this effective dodge dex be over their racial max.

This could help them to get through the brutal levels where the silver chain flail is king. At the higher levels the frost giants have overcome their inherent fear of fire a bit more and are less jumpy around it.

making them particularly likely to break into James Brown-esque rantings when attacked by something with holy damage.

The duergar will feign weakness, screaming he can't go on, beginning to fall to the ground in exhaustion, but will suddenly surge with new energy and continue to fight.

nt

That combo would break PK records and be awesome for me to RP. But instead I have to live vicariously and watch someone else make the magic happen.

ETA: i would also write a kickass non plagiarized desc that would be very offensive to felar kind. :P

That could be arranged!

nt

We'll talk; everything is negotiable!

x

nt

It has the most important parts of cloud ranger, and evil means never having to say you're sorry.

Rage-blood fill Tjok's old-ass heart!

Oh well, there's always next Christmas! And at least I'm playing something that's ideal for living vicariously :)

My only real substantive Frost Giant feedback is when i was a lowbie, there wasn't an entrance to mud school at the recall trench. Everything else was pretty much what I expected. Based on my fire giant savage rangers and orc hp gains previously, i had expcted hp gains from 18-20, but I guess ranger hps are capped at 19, so it was 18 or 19.

It usually seemed like I had better options than frost blade, so I didn't use the inherent much. Having a strengthened Jumnarl's and Artic Fury was awesome.

The race is a bad choice imho.

Its been a month since Gralnath got this high after I deleted Taeldur, the first one at hero range. Here are reasons I would never pick a frost right now.


1) The mud is full of Marans right now. Marans use fire a lot. The frost race is vuln fire. That means I can find a troll hide or an ancient red hide (haha), or grab a low level prep. You have to compete with felars now for that resist-fire though, and there are a lot more felars than frosts.

2) The racial skill seems absolutely worthless. Period. I don't recall ever using it, even once.

3) They have ####ty dex and are primarily melee-based. The extra HP doesn't mean #### when everyone and their mom has fire-based weapons. Flails from Ysigrath rape lowbie frost giants.

4) Only one hometown that is easily accessible by any enemy.

5) When I played you couldn't wear/pick up any of the frost giant specific items, and many evil giant only items are non-wearable. Pendant of fire from Kiadanah comes to mind.

6) When I played, there was a bug with corpses not returning to the pit. This means that multiple times I had to pray to the imms to get my #### back, wasting even more time.

7) You have a big target on your back. Everyone knows your frost giant is evil, and that you have no spells to move around and run from gangs, means you have to gather constantly to support just running away from bad odds.

8) Edges not working early on and I got to level 42 before it was fixed.

9) Yet again a character who got 0 interaction. They have no immortal god, maybe you can choose one or two cabals. Thats a hell of a niche char.

Some comments:

Item 1 and 3 are valid concerns. Perhaps it is a bad time to be an evil Felar as well.

Item 2: If you never used your inherent even once, how did you know if the frostblade was useless or useful? It does scale up in strength with level, but I am open to modifying it.

Item 4 is a limited concern; I don't have any evidence that player PK ratios were impacted by this.

Items 5a, 6, and 8 were all fixed so they are irrational "reasons I would never pick a frost right now".

Item 7 is also true of Orcs, most Fire Giants (warriors/rangers), Minotaurs (shaman is a rare choice), and most Duergar (warrior/thief).

Item 9 has nothing to do with the race.


I should check the logs and see if fire-based or Maran attacks have been the cause for the majority of PK deaths for Frost Giants.

Edit - Caveat :I think a lot of these issues are due to the game having been balanced with this race not in mind for 18 years. I think as the game progresses a lot of these problems will get better.


1 + 3...yes it is bad time to be an evil felar right now but by and large there is still doubt of "Is that felar evil/neutral/good. You don't have that same doubt with frost giants if you are a goodie.

2 - I used it a ton, I am just saying an exotic is pretty worthless for non-HPM characters. Maybe I am wrong and there are warriors/rangers running around wielding exotics, but I don't think so.

4. I disagree. Lets say I quaff from near the Fort after fighting Marans. They know where I am, and how I can get in and out of that area, I think thats a drawback, but I understand if you disagree.

5a, 6 and 8 being fixed is great but it was frustrating while playing the character. It made my experience less fun, so I have to mention it.

7. Fire giants have less cold based weapons + spells to deal with early on than frost does. Also the fire giants don't have to fight another race for limited protection from one of their vulns. Duergar and minotaurs have different benefits, that Frost giants don't have. In short, detect hide > 24 con, and immune fear > 24 con.

9. They have no patron deity, thats odd. That is race specific.

If an imm will give me a spot, I'll get one to hero rank and start beating ass!!

Frost giants suck because the likelihood of the player rolling the char was planning to roll a giant warrior is quite low, therefore they are playing something they didn't intend to play and generally totally suck with.

Meanwhile, those who want frost giant are stuck playing elf wizards.

I kid! I don't know who you're playing!

ssia

gr

You seemed scionesque, And I wasn't going to get the kill solo. All i really wanted was insects on you which missed anyway.

At least 2 are Outlander, one Nightreaver, and you (who werent a leader?) also have insects, well how nice for you.

Meanwhile Joe Lowbie scion app is there already getting 2v1'd by a warrior/shaman and his cabal god thinks he spends too much time with Imperials. No surprise why I was frustrated as a player when that was what I dealt with every day.

Anyway no hard feelings I just wondered. Hope you guys jumped the Marans after I left ;)

nt.

who pk
<51 Svirf Inv> (PK) Fink the Weaver of the Elements
<40 Orc Ber> (PK) Kagash the Desecrator of the Holy
*42 D-Elf Tra* (PK) Jolfyr the Seer of the Arcane
<40 Human Bar> (PK) Kiraava the Bard
<40 Storm War> (PK) Blectl the Mistress of Weapons
<51 Gnome Shf> (PK) Solec of WillowWood, Connoisseur of Cocktails, Meter of Mind


Well this was my pk range when I went to the Fortress. Why 3 outlanders are even camped there is another question entirely.


<541/541hp 856/1007m 682mv 20298xp> wilderness 12 AM e
e
In the Mountains


Gralnath steps out from his cover.
Gralnath's surprise attack DISMEMBERS you!
You yell 'Help! I've been ambushed by Gralnath!'
You accidentally kick a small rock loose, and something heavy gives way!
A boulder falls on you from above!
A falling rock's impact wounds you.
Gralnath is in perfect health.

<403/541hp 856/1007m 675mv 20298xp> wilderness 12 AM inherent 'faerie fire'

You twist your body out of the way of Gralnath's savage blow.
Gralnath's cleave mauls you.
Gralnath parries your pound.
Your pound devastates Gralnath!
Gralnath has a few scratches.

<372/541hp 856/1007m 675mv 20298xp> wilderness 12 AM No way! You are still fighting!
Gralnath has a few scratches.

<372/541hp 856/1007m 675mv 20298xp> wilderness 12 AM You call forth magical faerie fire to cover Gralnath.
Gralnath is surrounded by a pink outline.
Gralnath has a few scratches.

<372/541hp 851/1007m 675mv 20298xp> wilderness 12 AM cast 'metabolic slowing' gralnath

You twist your body out of the way of Gralnath's attack.
Gralnath's frigid chop injures you.
Gralnath's cleave devastates you!
As you fight Gralnath, you find yourself intimidated by his fierce war paint!
Your pound devastates Gralnath!
Gralnath dodges your pound.
Gralnath has a few scratches.

<313/541hp 851/1007m 675mv 20298xp> wilderness 12 AM You magically slow Gralnath's metabolism.
Gralnath has a few scratches.

<313/541hp 831/1007m 675mv 20298xp> wilderness 12 AM
You parry Gralnath's frigid chop.
Your pound maims Gralnath!
Gralnath parries your pound.
Your pound misses Gralnath.
Gralnath has a few scratches.

<313/541hp 831/1007m 675mv 20298xp> wilderness 12 AM
Gralnath suddenly tenses up and charges towards you with savage abandon.
Your body is wracked with pain as you are slammed against an outcrop of jagged rocks!
Gralnath's savage blow devastates you!
Gralnath has a few scratches.

<280/541hp 831/1007m 675mv 20298xp> wilderness 12 AM
The clouds disappear.
You feel your grip return to normal.
Gralnath has a few scratches.

<283/541hp 845/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 1 AM cast 'corporeal softening' gralnath

You parry Gralnath's cleave.
Gralnath's frigid chop decimates you!
You twist your body out of the way of Gralnath's attack.
Your pound decimates Gralnath!
Gralnath dodges your pound.
Your pound maims Gralnath!
Gralnath has some small but disgusting cuts.

<247/541hp 845/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 1 AM
Gralnath's cleave devastates you!
Gralnath's frigid chop decimates you!
The axe glows blue as a savage look can be seen in Gralnath's eyes, as a low growl can be heard.
Your pound maims Gralnath!
Your pound maims Gralnath!
Gralnath has some small but disgusting cuts.

<171/541hp 845/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 1 AM You fail to soften Gralnath's skin.
Gralnath has some small but disgusting cuts.

<171/541hp 805/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 1 AM Gralnath suddenly tenses up and charges towards you with savage abandon.
Gralnath's savage blow misses you.
Gralnath has some small but disgusting cuts.

<171/541hp 805/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 1 AM
You twist your body out of the way of Gralnath's attack.
Your pound devastates Gralnath!
Gralnath parries your pound.
Your pound devastates Gralnath!
Gralnath is covered with bleeding wounds.

<171/541hp 805/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 1 AM
You parry Gralnath's cleave.
Your pound decimates Gralnath!
Gralnath dodges your pound.
Gralnath parries your pound.
Gralnath is covered with bleeding wounds.

<171/541hp 805/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 1 AM
You twist your body out of the way of Gralnath's savage blow.
Gralnath is covered with bleeding wounds.

<171/541hp 805/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 1 AM flee
Near Redhorn Gate


A small, furry beast digs at the snow with its sharp claws.
The near-silent snapping of a branch is the only harbinger of danger as a vast net of vines descends, rendering you immobile!
You flee from combat!

<171/541hp 805/1007m 591mv 20298xp> wilderness 1 AM flee
cast 'duo dimension'
Your futile struggling only manages to get you further entangled!

<171/541hp 805/1007m 591mv 20298xp> wilderness 1 AM Your futile struggling only manages to get you further entangled!

<171/541hp 805/1007m 591mv 20298xp> wilderness 1 AM
Seized with anger, someone unleashes a wild growl!

<175/541hp 822/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 2 AM
Someone stops using a ranger's staff.
Someone wields a ranger's spear.

<175/541hp 822/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 2 AM
Someone gets a sparse brown stem with dull green leaves from a cured hide sack made from the corpse of Gortanvil.
With great confidence and skill, someone carefully harvests a sparse brown stem with dull green leaves.

<175/541hp 822/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 2 AM
Gralnath has arrived.

<175/541hp 822/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 2 AM aff
Your futile struggling only manages to get you further entangled!

<175/541hp 822/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 2 AM
Someone nods.

<175/541hp 822/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 2 AM
You yell 'Help someone is attacking me!'
Someone utters the words, 'uigzqh gxabraw'.
Someone parries your pound.
Someone dodges your pound.
Someone flows to one side as your pound passes.
Someone is in perfect health.

<175/541hp 822/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 2 AM c word

Mrekya steps out from her cover.
You parry Mrekya's thrust.
You parry Mrekya's claw.
Mrekya dodges your pound.
Mrekya parries your pound.
Garm steps out from his cover.
Garm fades into existence.
Garm's surprise attack DISMEMBERS you!
You sure are BLEEDING!
You yell 'Help! I've been ambushed by Garm!'
Mrekya is in perfect health.

<74/541hp 822/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 2 AM
Mrekya utters the words, 'uigzqh gxabraw'.
Mrekya is in perfect health.

<74/541hp 822/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 2 AM
You twist your body out of the way of Gralnath's savage blow.
You yell 'Help! Gralnath just attacked me!'
Mrekya is in perfect health.

<74/541hp 822/1007m 599mv 20298xp> wilderness 2 AM
You remain safe as Mrekya's claw bounces harmlessly off of plate vambraces decorated with red enamel.
You parry Gralnath's cleave.
You twist your body out of the way of Gralnath's attack.
You parry Gralnath's frigid chop.
You parry Gralnath's frigid chop.
Mrekya parries your pound.
Mrekya deflects your pound with her defensive spin.
Mrekya parries your pound.
Garm's thrust decimates you!
You sure are BLEEDING!
In the Mountains


You flee from combat!

So I tried to ignore you as much as I possibly could.

Though that time you "tricked" me into walking into that snare was interesting.

I think you deserve some credit for going it mostly alone during the range you often had.

Hope you have some more luck with the next.

As a ranger, I could have just hidden if I wanted to, but what fun is that. Also, most of the time I played there were a lot of other outlanders on well but I actually prefered to be outnumbered so i can rationalize my deaths better. You seemed pretty tough and I liked fighting you.