Thu Jan 2 18:43:08 2020

At 11 o'clock AM, Day of Deception, 16th of the Month of the Dragon
on the Theran calendar Tauzak perished, never to return.

Race:	storm
Class:	warrior
Level:	51
Alignment:	Good
Ethos:	Chaotic
Cabal:	FORTRESS, the Fortress of Light
Age:	386
Hours:	353

We never fought, but you always was coming against the hordes, and in most of the cases you was retrieving successfully. Huge respect for that, CF need more players like you! See you on the fields.

I remember all those years ago when I first started playing CF some 25 years ago. I had a complete and utter soft spot for the giant race it was just "me". Roll forward to the current day and a few attempts (Some successful-ish) I can honestly say that this will likely be the last giant I play. There are may many reasons for this but the biggest is the dex changes took things to far, for me as it is now it truely is a matter of if you cant beat em join em.

Was never an overly serious build I wanted to give polearms a go as I have never played a giant polearm spec.

The build:
- Sword/Polearm
- Cry/Fires

My plan
- was to use fires to bait people into thinking they had me then going for some burst damage and tanking like a pro
The reality
- Fires is a horrible legacy
- To the point where I started trying to collect data on how the lowering hp impacted tanking
- This was mainly driven my having far far to many instances where I got completely slammed when under 300 hp
- The biggest issue tho if it kicks real hard when and I quote
"At around 10%, the bonus to dodge and parry should be significant enough that it's hard to miss."
Well by then its to late everyone is going for finishing moves

Couple this with my weapon choices
- Polearms
- I just did not have any form of synergy with this weapon.
- Chargeset seemed near enough to useless and (See dex changes) everyone just seemed to tank them super easy

Having said that I was up against some big odds
- 34 retrievals (And I can tell you I hit the 25 against opposition tier) and the majority were against 3+ empire
- I died a few times and then the looting started (Which I was fine with), what I was not fine with is I knew the people looting would never give the right of me having a chance back on the rare occasion we held the Codex
- Me vs 1 ... Nothing ... 2 Nothing ... 3 Oh here they come
- We all have our own way of playing I respect that but if we as players all take this line CF is a complete and utter snooze fest and I see this happening across other cabals

So I already had a few nails in the coffin
- A weapon and a legacy I did not like at all
- Then the 3+ v 1 retrievals started to turn into oh look they have called orcs to make it a 4+ v 1
- One particular 5 v 1 raid I had the vanquisher convulsing and a game mechanic was abused to kill the vanquisher while I recovered
- There are bug submissions for shove
- There are bug submissions for the tunnel to the palace (Admittidly placed after I deleted)
- There are bug submissions place for a means to bypass anti-gank
. Yes being tripped by 3 people is possible (while also being spelled up/demon fired etc) and there is nothing one can do
- I could have taken the stance well don't defend/don't retrieve but if I am going to do that IE "Not play" then I simply wont just log in
- And lastly the "non combat" inducing things when one is already fighting that are a massive disadvantage for the underdog
. Being dispelled/weakened/poisoned/plagued/cursed/blinded/bard songs/etc
. When facing numbers have 2-3 people crippling you without impacting anti gank seems against the intent of the original change (I dont know what the solution is maybe all abilities that would start combat if you are not fighting should simply pull you into combat if the target is fighting)
- All in all just more nails in the coffin

Farewells
- Imms thanks as always
- Empire there are some good characters amongst the ranks all in all tho most of you are just MEH
- Fortress had a great time with you all sorry I am not around to con die :P

Gank someone 3 v 1. 3rd person attacks a cabal mate and spams trip on the victim who is still only engaged with 2 people.

Why you think charge set is mostly useless.

I've always loved it.

Ok, it's fairly useless against ganks, or if someone jumps you during retrieval, or killing a mob, but it's still really useful if perfected.

Actually, maybe the difference is the everyone seems to prep with dam redux these days, whereas charge set used to put a serious dent in melee and stealth classes.

One change I'd quite like to see is that people with higher gank meters are much more affected by anti gank code.

Number of reasons
- I took it for management of thief blackjack and it saved me from being knocked out precicely 0% of the time. (Which when there are 4+ enemies in range is kind of a big deal)
- Then for the means to escape (DR or Not) it is not a combat initiate deterrent in my opinion this is coming from the viewpoint on having a character with the skill after previously fighting alot of polearm specs in the past.
- I cannot think of a single fight ever where I have thought better not attack ill trigger charge set
- Going back on some of these older fights and looking again now just for me cements how bad (For me) the specialization is (But I might have another bug submission here after some additional checking when I can be bothered)

Not speaking authoritatively here, but I've never thought charge set did anything to make knockout less likely. It just ups the stakes for the person considering trying to knock you out, possibly enough that they never even attempt it in the first place.

To be perfectly clear:
- Charge set failed to trigger every time
- IE it did not stop the initial attack
- I am not expecting the skill to give me sleep resistance

Disclaimer: Individual results may vary, but my comments stand.

I have always found polearm specs a push over now having played on I can see why

You terrified me in the beginning, I remember you coming after me when ranking with two others repeatedly at the Battlefields and still nearly killing me. All I could do was flee, rest and let my groupies spam disarm on you. Was probably a bit cheesy and frustrating for you, but it was literally the only thing we could do to stop you.

Then we fought again just before I hit hero and you absolutely splattered me. I think it was bash; bash; flurry and I watched ~1000hp instantly vanish.

You (and a few others) were the main reason I went Gates, I needed someway to survive those big vuln burst damage.

Once I hit hero our fights become more even, I could survive one flurry at least and if I could your str down quick enough you'd have to back off quick (as an FYI, hurl bypasses chargeset).

Anyway, I completely share many of your frustrations regarding ganks (at least you could word/teleport) and kudos for going into horrible odds so many times. One thing I really respected was even during the worst times when Dhuzok would reach out to you for a temporary ceasefire whilst we fought Imperials/Scions/Orcs you always stuck to your guns and flat out said no. Very solid RP.

GLWYN

I really wanted to say yes as a "Player"

I thought you were a great presence and I enjoyed our fights. I could have likely drawn them out longer by my wreckless attitude lost me some of my +str gear.

Hurl bypasses chargeset. I am not surprised but that's fine polearms are off the weapon skill list for me warriors now.

There was one more giant race coffin nail
- 909 natural hit points
- I have seen "Low con races" with more hp than this
- A "robust race" having less hp than an elf seem peculiar

Yeah yeah elf comes with a metal vuln. But this only matters if you are being hit.

And while giant resist is nice on paper in reality PVP 99% of the fight opponents dont use physical attack. So for me it does just come down to the raw hp, and the advantage giants have is very slim if even there at all.

they're like the human-est of all giants

I absolutely agree that there are too many wrath/defilement/poison weapons in the game. Way too many. Giant resist is only useful for mobs and teens.

is super lame. any char doing it should be demoted or booted stat. absolutely unintended 'feature' being abused of when the change was put in place that mobs can target non-fighting groupmates and cabalmates.

I respect the Imms and their efforts of keeping CF going but a lot of times I can't help but think they're asleep at the wheel or it's their mortals abusing corner case bugs. I sincerely doubt it's the latter. Maybe it's just apathy? I don't know. But the funstick measurement seems out of alignment.

Thank you for bring this up.

It’s soooo ####ing stupid a class can stand out of combat and do offensive things to another character without being drawn into combat.

Especially when you have things like an anti-gank code in place. Seems to negate the purpose of this.

Also somewhat negates the usefulness of the Ehren edges. Especially when Ehren Soul is so expensive.

I remember getting prison-style ####ed by this many time as Rastensol and being so mad I wasted EPs on the Ehren edges.

Dear Imms: will someone offer an exceptionally reasonable explanation for why this is?


On a side note. I get your disappointment with fires. I’ve never taken it for that reason. Too many active skills can kill you when you’re that close to death. Who gives a #### about Uber parry and dodge at that point? Not worth a legacy.

Well, that's rough. I'll certainly be missing the other person around crazy enough to face some odds. I hope you had some fun.

glwyn

I'm sorry to see you go. You were friendly and always willing to shake things up. I picked up the PBF.

Great character, it didn't matter the odds, you'd still come for the orb. We got you a bunch, despite that you were good at getting away as well, usually with the orb.

I wish there were more people like you playing this game.
Good luck with the next.