Fri Nov 18 09:43:03 2016

At 6 o'clock PM, Day of Deception, 23rd of the Month of Winter
on the Theran calendar Xisaer perished, never to return.

Race:	human
Class:	assassin
Level:	51
Alignment:	Good
Ethos:	Chaotic
Cabal:	FORTRESS, the Fortress of Light
Age:	53
Hours:	306

Well can't say that I am not pleased to see this. Having you lurking about was a bit nerve racking despite having some defense against it. You did well for the fight for Light.

I finally made it back into the fields, and hopefully I brought a net positive to everyone.

People
I've interacted with enough people that I do not think I will even try to tackle everyone.

Deormdel - Stellar as always. There is a reason why everyone is gravitating towards you. Sorry if I wasn't a super preachy priest, assassin kind of makes that a challenge.

Allies
Sirelas - Complete and utter man-crush. I was devastated when you were done. When together, as long as I was properly prepared there wasn't anyone who was safe.

Balgrum - Ditto above, loved Balgrum though I think he fit more as a Maran than Acolyte. I did try to preach Mercy some, trying to keep your spirit alive.

Arrashaw - Also a complete and utter man-crush, sorry to leave you.

Brondalorm - I loved your spirit, but it was hard reading your logs and then keeping my mouth shut IC about your mistakes. The biggest two were 1) always check yourself for flying and/or mantle before starting a fight and 2) stop putting your damn potions in your container - it appeared to repeatedly get you killed.

Hallanaphas - I was a big fan and tried to keep you informed.

Enemies
Muuksube - While I respected your RP mostly, it tended to fade when you realize you weren't going to get me and basically whined at me about it. I also have to say, Healing Curse combined with that venoms prayer was beyond ridiculous. I saw so many people die to something that was basically unbeatable unless you had some great DR.

Malchazzar - I had a lot of respect for you, but I admit.. once you got your buddies and did runs to wherever and got all the awesome gear it became pointless to fight you. You started off destroying me in the beginning, then it evened out, then you would not fight without your friends around. Any time I tried to engage, they were a step away. It just seems wrong and backwards to me when team evil has better cooperation and hand holding than team good. When you add on the mask, bleh.

Venara - If I logged on and saw you were on, I was very likely to find one of two scenarios. You had friends on and were right beside them, or were sitting in a temple with revnants basically making you untouchable.

Ikoxus - You were actually pretty ballsy and quite good or lucky when it came to my attempts. I took an edge Just to fight you and it worked wonders.

Jeede - Aggressive and quite deadly, I wish I had the talent with assassin as you do.

Quindessa - We went from bitter enemies, to sometimes enemies, to respect and preferring to fight someone else. It was interesting to interact with.

Tiiga - It surprised me how often you did not want to fight me, but it appeared whomever used martial trance tried to engage and the other vanished for four hours then tried to use martial trance and engage, after which the other fled. Pointless in the end.

Unknown
To the certain assassin who I see once a week just long enough to keep their gear and quit... If you have alts, please delete your char. I could be wrong as my vision is narrow now, but I swear you are nothing but a gear vault.

Anyone else - post and I will try to reply.

Thoughts on Assassins
After having played an assassin, probably one of the last few to have full edges... Please tweak or remove Master of Nage Waza. I stacked it with Ground Fighter and it was disgusting how much damage I could do. It makes kicks go from relevant to only use if you can't throw. Also, the fact that it negates throw protection against other assassins and hand warriors feels completely overpowered with the damage/lag/reliability increase. Maybe it would be okay as it is if going hands as a warrior safeguarded you against it (even if not reliably).

Thoughts on Cabal Balance (Meaning my OPINIONS follow)
I don't quite think that Maran powers are weak, but they are relatively weaker than the competition. It appears that many of the cabals were balanced with bigger numbers in mind, as far as to powers and leader positions available.

My biggest complaint was with phoenix brand. That damn spell misses SO MUCH. I have a log where I fail on Ikoxus like 3 or 4 times in a row. Compare that to sigil, which appears to hit without fail with one round lag and instead of producing limited weaknesses makes them weak to everything. Now if the numbers were increased it may be 5 marans to one emperor but we don't have those numbers. Our numbers are to the point that you can probably get yourself a council position if you have talent and play, and those powers are all around quite good.

The question is how do you improve the powers without being drastic? I only have guesses, and they may be far off honestly.
Try making phoenix brand more reliable, further improved for leaders.
Make lightforged weapons last longer the higher skill/more hours the player has that is making them. Gives incentive to use them the further in you get and incentive for longer life. Or if you don't want them lasting longer, can you allow for a parm to get the right one? I could literally go through my entire mana pool and not get the right combo at times.

Also, can revnants please be thought out a little bit. The fact that once called they just sit there waiting makes it pretty damned hard to even attempt to enter there without a huge party. Even with a huge party, you are probably going to die. It would make a lot more sense if you tried to raid and they called revnants, they lasted a certain amount of time, went away and no one could call more for a certain amount of time. Maybe I am crazy and this is closer to what it is, but no one should have a completely safe place.. and they certainly appear to. Also, should there not be some enforced RP reasons that they don't walk around hand in hand constantly?

I can say this, the mud clearly looks to favor evils at this point. There appear to be more areas that they can explore, with elite gear they can get, to a wider range of people they can fight (including other evils). The counter argument will be that oh, but goodies can request... Yeah, if it is in. There is only so much goodie gear and you can't kill your friend for it, so most people probably don't have the good stuff or if they do, it is a smattering of it.

you're right on in every regard (even said assassin!!)

Number of times assassinated by Xisaer at hero = zero

Anti-Assassinate tactics work! :P

That's the way it goes though, right? I don't catch you easy, you don't catch me easy.

GLWYN!

Definitely a big loss for the Fortress for you to go. Unfortunately for me, my playtimes have dropped a bit lately and I haven't been able to interact with you as much... but I had much to learn from you!

Looking forward to interacting with you in some capacity again.

Really going to miss your presence, a competent assassin is such a boon to Fort, as the hiding classes tend to skew evil. I wish you all the best with whatever comes next!

Also agree wholeheartedly with your comments on the powers etc., I'm surprised to hear that you can't specify what weapon you want with lightforge, or that phoenix brand is two rounds.

Yeah I remember being pleasantly surprised the first time as Hal you gave me some info. I came to enjoy working with you from there on out in that regard. Well done. I also enjoyed being opposite of you during my short stint as Vanaleeaa. Huge respect.

Since Imming is forever please ask to be reinstated. ;) Always loved your Imm religion and from the sounds of it your opinions are needed in Imm land.

Plus 53+ can play at a 20:1 mortal:Imm ratio and get away with it. Just ask Twist.

Regardless of all the mechanics of it, the truth is I don't miss immhood at all.

... you think it's bad with weapons, try it with staves when there are I think 13 different types and they all have the exact same keywords - and all but 2-3 are garbage.

Maran powers just need some love, especially with how paladins got toned down.

With highlights etc.

I'm a weird cat, I bitch about prepping but I'm fanatical about learning prep locations so I can prep. I hate gathering gold but I've been attempting to turn it into a fine art. I hate getting ganged yet love winning "underdog" battles. I hate underpowered race/class combos, but I refuse to roll OP race/class combos.

I'm just an idiot I think is the general message. I get frustrated easily (I'm a relatively impulsive guy) and I would have had more enjoyment rolling a less high profile character. It was fun and frustrating though, and a worthwhile experience.

I truly enjoyed getting to travel with you. Thanks for showing me that thing, I figured out 2 of the countermeasures on my own and learned some interesting things. Showed it to one person, who showed me something else cool. Thanks for giving me a couple awesome memories (like getting the RING!!!!) and generally being everything I expect in a cabal leader.

Granted it was a little bit ago and I do not know if they were changed since Scion melded, but when I played Thurmonbrue there were frequently times I was completely alone in the Temple. So I frequently used revenants to defend. While very strong damage wise they are not the greatest in body. There were quite a few times when Cionahd or Random Fort Invoker #2 would come in and completely obliterate them, work me out, then kill the lich and go on their way.

While they may be viewed as too powerful. They are not the end all be all you make them out to be.

***Granted I don't know if they were changed since then.***

I always liked running with you and learning from you. Hope you had a good time too, although I must admit you helped me far more than I ever helped you.

Glad to see you back in the fields.