Fri Dec 9 15:26:37 2005

At 2 o'clock AM, Day of the Bull, 1st of the Month of the Sun
on the Theran calendar Flunruk perished, never to return.

Race:	svirfnebli
Class:	warrior
Level:	49
Alignment:	Neutral
Ethos:	Orderly
Cabal:	BATTLE, the BattleRagers, Haters of Magic
Age:	178
Hours:	103

Enjoyed our brief interactions. So long.

hey I want to let you know that me the player felt bad for your situation. I know how tough a role like that can be but flunruk the character just saw mage even if you couldn't cast. The reason that a mage has to be cleansed by a warlord specifically goes back to the story of the foundation of the village. They were betrayed by the mages of order and as a result are very untrusting of any mage no matter what, the exception is unless a warlord says its ok. I hope you keep plugging away and have fun with your role.

Well I kind of determined that Flunruk had fallen into a routine that I was not finding fun so I deleted.

I made this char as a comeback char after leaving the game over what I condsidered poor administration but after I decided to give up one addictive habbit I had a lot of free time so flunruk was created. The name actually is a result of 3 of my past characters names combined into one that I actually was able to remember the day after I rolled.

I went svirf because well I always play svirf villagers and I went defender because I had only had a defender one time before but it was a bard so I wanted to try it out with a warrior. I picked flail and spear for my specializations with the intention of later taking hour past midnight in order to deal damage. I was very pleased with my specs and village path I was able to fight a very wide variety of people and had options for some more utility-esque strategies but in the end the almighty lash was my most potent tool for landing kills.

For legacies I took gates of the forge and harmonious equilibrium. If you guys fighting me and only doing injures and maims ever wonded why you couldn't hit me hard that was the reason. When I was geared and had stoneskin up this was an amazing legacy but a few flaws in it I want to poiint out there for nepenthe. First only things which affect your ability to use your armor and armor should go into it. spells like armor, aura, shield, and other bard songs don't really make sense with the legacy. Stoneskin I would say still does but on the flipside faerie fire can strip gates from even the best geared people. I don't know how my armor glowing prevents me from turning it into blows but faerie fire sucked for me. Harmonious was great especialy against the gank squads.

Village:
I am a veteran village player and this time I was a little dissapointed with the experience. You guys are all trying hard but its fairly obvious that a lot of you are fairly green at least as far as fighting with a villager. This is the first time I have seen so many defenders in the village and so many whip/dagger specs I mean wow every single village warrior had whip or dagger as a spec if not both. Also the standards on intercabal raiding, induction standards, and a few other things seem well inadequate.

Kaisse: You are an excellent role player I have never seen a single character so inspire the entire village, and this is coming from a player who ran around with almost all the battle imms when they were mortals. Everytime I interacted with you I came away realizing that Kaisse was a fully fleshed out real personality and that was just a situation I have not run into many times on this MUD. My only criticism and you heard it IC from flunruk was that your trying to lead the cabal as if it was full of berserkers. It isn't, your going to have the entire village con dead in about two weeks if you don't start prepping for raids and making more coherent battle stretegies for big group battles.

Trismit: In my opinion another hardcore villager, You should have gotten drillmaster even though I like Iasolar he is just to soft on everyone. PLus I thought you won that fight with korok too I think ordasen must have been on crack when he made that decision but then again he did try to give me a dress so maybe he was? haha

Iasolar: Cool dude, little too easy on the induction standards though.

Enemies:

Sorry if we ganged and full looted you but hey everything these days seems to be group v group nobody wants to fight solo.

As far as Flunruk goes I thought you were a very competent player. And I could tell you had played a Villager before and new quite a bit about the lay of the lands. You made some pretty impressive kills in my eyes and I was happy to have you around for those reasons. Showed me a bit here and there. As far as being soft on everyone do understand I have been near the only one in hero range for sometime and since the end of Dolza's command and me given the Commander position, I was told to bring life back into the Village which at that point damn near everyone was not existant or had deleted. So at that point I still had some pretty standards for getting in. Knowing history and whatnot as it has always been since I have been playing Villagers and the killing mages part. Then I would have liked to have young applicants battle and such, but there were never enough about and before you young ones came about we didn't even have any applicants sending missives. Anyways, on top of that I had tried to keep them waiting until their twenty fifth title and got bashed a little bit by an Imm for not letting a young one in and trying to do it how I have always known it to me. So anyways call it soft, but if I hadn't the Village would be non-existant and I just got tired of it really and things dropped off a bit. So good luck on your next!

It would be nice if Commanders could be a bit picky about who they induct but the lack of applicants just makes this impossible. Whoever applies, pretty much gets in. I only turned one person away from the village, and even that wasn't permanently because I did want to see if he could change but he chose to delete instead. Basically, after our first interview, in which he pretty much revealed he was totally new to the village, he then asked me where he could get scrolls to see invisible while he was waiting for induction and this was after I spent a half-hour explaining to him what we were about.

Ias, you also nailed it when you said there are no hero villagers to interact with. I think only three of the villagers I inducted out of about twenty made it to hero and when they did, they fell off the face of the earth, almost like they were just trying to get a hero character in every cabal and just choose who they wanted to play at any given time.

About induction policies: I also learned that how YOU get into the cabal is not necessarily what the Imms want to see. I tried to do what was done to me to applicants and got bashed for it. This was good though because there was some direction at least and I learned as I went.

But yeah, Leadership of the Village is not an easy thing right now and hasn't been for months.

One of the major reasons I deleted was because I felt that the village was not up to par with my expectations. I used the term fortressized a lot when discussing it with my friends. I mean basically anyone who is willing to go through the interview process deserves a shot at playing the cabal but that being said if you eliminate a lot of the process you end up with a lot of less then stellar cabal members. This is the very reason I don't play many fortress, empire, or tribunal characters because the overall quality of character is just low.

I have had several cabal leaders in the past even village ones and I have been the lone hero in a cabal as well as the only member in a cabal before (actually that happened twice where I was the only active member for several weeks). I know its tough and frustrating but while the village now has a lot more numbers it still is pretty much in the same place it was with only 2 heros. A lot of the players are very green and don't know how to work well in groups which is what the pk scene lately has devolved into. Simple things like making sure everyone has a weapon before rushing off to raid against forces that outnumber you are being overlooked. Villagers not knowing where the war room is during the rites is another sign that perhaps the standards need to be a little higher. and of course the big thing is not utilizing the lash enough, haha well that one is a joke!

I truly enjoyed my interactions with Iasolar and your a great villager but the level of quality in the village has deteriorated a bit. I am not claiming either to be the super villager this is just my opinion of the state of things.

But I would rather have 5 newbs in the village who play with heart and dedication than three veterans who show up only once in a blue moon anyday. My inductees just had to show a basic understanding of villager history, some battle prowess and some villager attributes and I would give them a shot. It's the veterans' job to educate the new blood in the village and pass down its traditions. I like new players in the village. Its fun to see them improve as they get older, hell, this happened a lot with me. But I also would ensure all new members got a tour of the village and learned what I expected of them and the basics of being a villager, after that, they should ask other villagers if they have any questions. Not knowing where the war room is is pretty sad, but at least that's one more hut to interact with. Logging on to be the only villager time and time again was not the funnest experience. I haven't been around for a bit due to time constraints but I look forward to seeing the new villagers if they don't con die before I have a chance ;).

Maybe he doesn't 'drill' in the traditional sense, but he's got it all in the teaching aspect. That to me is what the drillmaster is for. A veteran who is taking their hand and shoving it into the hot oil. Muhahahaha.

Had some good battles. You are one of a few that actually dont fight with groups of other villagers agaisnt lone mages.

Raid situations are diferent, but I agree with your assessment of current villagers. Some even get Outlanders to come to their aid in one on one fights.

Good job anyhow.

OMG it was so frustrating fighting all of you. I was expecting to fight a lot of offensive forms but when I hit hero all I saw were porquipines, lemurs, and a croc. I mean there wasn't really anything I could do solo except get the impale and hope maybe to land a few hits and have you make a whole lot of mistakes. Cudos to you guys for just hasseling us at every turn and giving me some challenges.

I'm glad to see you weren't on bad terms after Kaisse 'poo-pooed' your efforts to take the pk train down a gear. That was very much an in character deal and I was looking to you for more constructive advice - it was damn obvious you had the hang of every-day villaging on the road. Unfortunately, I have my direction and 'recommendations from above' just like every commander. That said, I think you're right. Your critisisms are pretty much on mark as much as your praise. I've got a few steps to take in learning to lead over commiting repeated suicide by myself :) I'm just responsible for too many and its taking time to adjust. As an example, I've been working on this role entry... for about 2 weeks. Every day I change my ways to try to accomodate leadership better. Its beginning to infringe on my ideas for the character, but its a worthy sacrifice.

Oh, and no ####, Trismit is a beast in the shadows :D

Kaisse Tait

First thing first is make sure everyone has weapons. It makes a vast difference in group fights if everyone is contributing.

Second thing is make sure everyone knows their role. I know we have a lot of utility specs in the village but group fights don't favor utility they favor damage. The strength the village has over the empire is a lot more warriors. Idealy in the group battles You should have only 2 people actually attacking The first will be your group tank, the second is for halting a support char. By this I mean everyone should autoassist the tank and try to kill the victim as fast as they can. Four warriors beating on someone should kill anyone very quickly, everyone fighting individual people is going to give your enemies a lot more time to adjust and when they have area spells at their disposal it gets even worse. The only time you have a second attacker is if they have a bard or healer and their only concern is making life difficult for that particular player.

Third thing is make sure you have a plan for escape if #### goes sour. A well geared villager is a potent weapon but a naked one doesn't really do anything. Everytime you go into a battle you shouldn't be expecting to take any casualties or at least a fraction of what you plan to impart on your enemies. Fighting the empire can be tricky right now because of quicksand and centurions but try not to fight in areas with only one exit. This way you can retreat and strike again. In fact because of the number of defenders in the village this is your best tactic. It takes a defender 4 ticks to fully heal and a non defender about 10 usually.

fourth thing is picking your targets. Yes that invokers can do area spells and they are going to add up overtime but at the same time he is also not going to die very fast because of his high damage reduction. Your better bet is to be focus on the weakest link of your enemies. Have everyone hit that warrior who doesn't have a defensive spec while they lash the area spell mage. This way you cut down on melee damage of your opponents as well as slowing down their area spells.

These are just some general things and your doing a good job. The last thing I want to leave you with is keep in mind the village is berserkerless more or less at hero and you can't just wade in against 2 to 1 odds and expect to win. If your fighting groups count each support char as one and a half people if they have someone to support and don't go into any battle where they outnumber you by 2 people, at least not with a retreat plan in place.

I had always wondered if this legacy was worth taking or not. Would you ever take it again? Did it make that much of a difference?

Thanks for any further insight you are willing to provide.

This legacy was great, I listed my criticisms of it in my farewell but suffice it to say the dam redux was very very very noticeable. I hope with item standardization they take a look at eq because a lot of it didn't neccesarily make sense, a cloth cape for instance being better protection then a mithril breastplate and so on.

also The big problem with this legacy is that anyone with faerie fire or manacles can render it useless. Even berserk made it difficult to use without stoneskin and armor being up.

would I take it again? Hell yeah I think a svirf sword spec with gates and autum thirsting with a bard to sing him up would be one of the most unstoppable forces cf has ever seen. If you really wanted to make that combo nasty throw in ordasens tat.

nt

Aww, I'm disappointed to see you go. I was looking forward to getting back into your pkrange and seeing what would happen in the quest for peace vs. conflict.

Good luck on your next!

when we were ranking and I saw you do that thing you do I was in shock. I had to double check that you were an assassin. I feel bad now for continueing to rank with you but Low ranks are my pet peeve and I will do just about anything to avoid staying in them for any longer then I absolutly have to so I kind of stretched my role a bit. After that though I mean as a player I think villagers should hunt rangers as well as every other mage class so I was going to be after you. I know also that the specifics of your situation are more dynamic then smash mage but still its the way you call it that is important to flunruk not the way you explained it.

~

nt

Yeah flunruk just loved to fight and would duel anyone willing. You had a bad matchup as I had 2 legacies and enhanced reactions on top of disgusting dam redux as a villager. But you seem to be doing allright now!